My son is going to be 13 in September. He is very active, always busy doing his own thing. He comes straight home from school most days, says hi, and then runs outside to play with his friends. Our house is the hang out for the neighborhood boys and they all come and play in the front yard and build forts or are in battle mode building teams and shooting each other with Nerf dart guns.

The point is that my son stays busy and hanging out with mom is the farthest thing from his mind. If he isn't outside, when he is inside, he is hooked on playstation two beating aliens or fighting a battle as a military man. If I am lucky, I can rent a movie on pay per view that he wants to watch but as soon as it is over, he is back in his room.

At his age, mom isn't that cool.

What I Discovered This Past Weekend

Some weekends, both my kids want to play a board game together. We usually play Cat-opoly which is another version of Monopoly. It is a game my daughter got for Christmas or we play the game of Life. It is our time together and we make it a family fun night.

This past weekend, instead of playing a board game, we ended up playing Guitar Hero.We have the one that came with two guitars so we were playing against each other a lot. We also played on the medium mode with one guitar to earn money for a character he wanted to buy. We started playing around 9:30pm. My daughter crashed at 2:00am. However, my son and I kept playing and playing until after 4am.

After we finished playing, my son came up and gave me a big hug. He said to me that he wanted to let me know how much it meant to him the time that he and I got to spend together. That he didn't know any of his friends whose mom would stay up with them all night and play Guitar Hero or any other game. Every few minutes he would tell me how much fun he had and how much it meant to him. He also said that next weekend we would have to do the same thing.

I had no clue that doing something like that with him would mean so much.

Take A Little Time With Your Kids

When your kids start getting older, they start developing their own habits and their own social networks. They also start really showing their independence and they have a tendency more often than not to start backing away from their parents. Sometimes, we as parents find it difficult to relate to our children because of the differences we see.

We, as parents, are in a parental box. It is our job to make our kids happy and keep them safe. Parenting means that it is more important to be the adult instead of the friend, however that doesn't mean that we can't step out of the parental box every now and then.

Spending time with our kids in a way that relates to their interests means a lot. Especially if we do it and they don't expect it. Just like for my son, playing the PlayStation is something he is greatly interested in. I usually am on his case about playing so much, but I stepped out of the parental box and joined him. It became a time that just he and I had together. I didn't realize that it was going to mean so much to him.

Parents spend time with your kids. Sometimes it is the smallest things that mean the most to them. It helps your relationship with them when you take the time to find out and participate in something that interests them. You might just find that you will be able to relate a little better with them and build a " cool " bond.