Family Quality Time: The Importance of Spending Quality Time With Your Baby

When it comes to being a parent and raising children, nothing is more special and precious than those moments you spend together. Raising a family is no small feat. It takes a lot of love, patience, and care — but there’s also nothing like watching your little ones learn and grow up in front of your eyes.

In the early infant stages, quality time cannot be understated. This time together is not just for the memories; it’s also a crucial part of their mental and emotional development. These essential early development stages thrive when caregivers are present, both physically and emotionally, and as they create meaningful connections with their little ones.

This blog explores the importance of spending quality time with your child. We’ll dive into the science behind it and how the right developmental tools can help strengthen this time together.

The Science Behind Bonding

The relationship between an infant and its parents is crucial to their development. Neuroscientists suggest that oxytocin, nicknamed “the love hormone,” plays a significant role. Caregivers experience a boost of oxytocin, encouraging the desire to cuddle and care for their newborn. This specific hormone promotes bonding and a desire to engage in caregiving behaviour — a.k.a. family quality time.

How to Spend Quality Time with Your Child

Prioritizing quality family time can include a wide range of activities. Your little ones require consistent visual and physical interactions to stimulate their senses. Here are some simple and effective ways parents can begin this process and how fun tools like play mat exercises can help.

Stimulate Cognitive Development

Newborns begin developing their cognitive skills from the first moment they open their eyes to the baby teething stage. Engaging in appropriate sensory stimulation helps them foster adequate brain and muscle development.

Incorporating playtime tools to elevate your family’s quality time experience is the most effective way. First, start with the surface itself. If your little one doesn’t have a safe and comfortable surface to begin cognitive activities, there’s a greater chance it may stunt their cognitive development and risk their safety overall.

An activity gym for babies, for example, can be the foundation to let your little one explore the ground around them. Activity gyms come with arched structures, allowing parents to attach stimulating toys over their heads that they can learn to hold and squeeze with their hands. As they grow up and become more mobile, your activity gym doubles as a safe climbing structure for them to practice their motor skills.

Tummy Time

From day one, baby tummy time becomes essential to a newborn’s development. In addition to giving them a break from being on their backs, it’s also imperative in helping fight what’s known as flat–head syndrome, a condition that occurs when a newborn sleeps with their head turned to one side for the first few months of their life.

Tummy time helps newborns learn to reach out, roll over, and eventually sit up and crawl. As you engage in quality family time, allowing your little one to embrace tummy time is one of the most effective things you can do as a parent in the early stages. Be sure to choose the right surface for this crucial time together. Our playmats, for example, are designed with a soft skin-like vegan leather cover, specifically for your little one’s comfort and safety.

Enhancing Motor Skills Through Development Tools

As you spend quality time with your child, it’s important to foster a space where they can build on their crucial motor skills. While there’s no strict timeline for muscle development, you’ll typically begin to see them roll over, either from belly to back or vice-versa, around the four-month mark. This is the first step in a months-long journey, eventually leading them to the walking stage.

While you can’t predict exactly when these milestones will occur to the day, you can ensure you’re engaging in enough family quality time with your little one to give them the stimulation and encouragement their little minds need to succeed.

Where they engage in these activities is a great place to start. Your little one needs a safe space where they can begin to foster their motor skills, such as learning to reach and rollover. We recommend a playmat for kids. At Wunderkids, our non-toxic playmats are specifically designed for the comfort and safety of newborns up to the toddler stages. With nine layers of premium foam and a soft vegan leather cover, it’s easier to spend time with your kids, knowing their joints are protected, and they can play and learn without worry.

The Crawling Stage

Crawling is one of the first significant milestones in your little one’s life and yours. Typically, around the six-to-seven-month mark, your child will try to get on their knees and hands, eventually pulling themselves up to a beginning “commander crawl,” ultimately leading to a complete crawl.

When learning how to help your baby crawl, having the right tools and resources is a great first step in fostering this milestone. Your little one’s joints and muscles are still very delicate at this time, and they need soft materials and padded surfaces where they can safely learn to put pressure on their knees and hands. Instead of putting them on a rug or carpet, which can be too rough on their skin, consider a Wunderkids playmat — made of hypoallergenic, non-toxic materials and nine layers of high-density foam, which guarantees the right amount of cushioning and fitness to protect their joints.

Benefits of Sensory Play

As you spend hours on the ground with your little one, watching them take in the sights and sounds of your home, you can see them strengthen their senses. Your quality family time is an essential part of that experience.

Sensory playtime is a great way to help your little one continue to develop those skills, from the infant stages all the way to elementary school. To start, you can incorporate activities on your playmat, such as trying different foods (at appropriate stages), squishing playdough, and activities like jumping or dancing as they build their muscle strength.

Nursery Essentials to Foster Quality Time

If you’re asking yourself what do you need in a nursery, fear not. Here is a list of essentials to get you started so you can focus on making memories with your little one:

1. Crib Essentials (Crib, Crib Mattress, and Crib Bedding)
2. Nursing Chair
3. Overhead Crib Mobile
4. Growth-Based Books and Toys
5. Nightlight
6. Changing Station
7. Clothing Storage and Hamper
8. Tummy Time Station (Including a playmat and foldable playpen)

Quality Time Starts with Quality Playtime Essentials

Wunderkids was created to give parents and caregivers the peace of mind they deserve. We understand the importance of safety and comfort during those crucial development stages and have dedicated our efforts to providing products that do exactly that.

Our playmats, babyrooms, foam blocks, and accessories are designed with non-toxic materials — benefitting your little one and the environment simultaneously. We know first-hand how important quality family time is to your baby’s physical, emotional, and mental health, and we’re proud to be a small part of that journey.