What Are the Qualities of a Good Father?
First off, I want to congratulate you on searching this topic. It speaks to your desire to improve your dad skills, which we all need. Well done!
When anyone becomes a Father, all you want to be is a good one. That will of course mean different things to different people, depending largely on your culture and upbringing (things you want to duplicate OR eliminate).
Some people have a good father to mimic, others unfortunately had one they try and do the opposite of everything they saw. Some did not have one at all.
Regardless of where you lie on this father spectrum, there seems to be some core qualities that every ‘good father’ does.
As a dad, I know we all get busy with the weight of fatherhood (careers, chores, driving kids to whatever….the list goes on).
It seems like a common occurrence, that while carrying all the weight of being a father, we forget all the things that make us a good one.
And one of those things: QUALITY TIME!!!
Well, we’re men. We like things simple. Give us the list, and we’ll tackle it. I’ve Got You Brother! Here is a ‘checklist’ for you, NOT so you can do EVERYTHING on it, but to help give you some starter ideas.
Have Fun!
Your New Quality Time with Dad Checklist
| Good Father Checklist | ||
| Instant | Give a Hug | |
| Give Them a Good Compliment | ||
| High Fives | ||
| 5-10 min activities | Play a Short Game (1 hand of Uno, Connect 4, Tic Tac Toe) | |
| Read a Short Book | ||
| Compliment them on Something They’ve Recently Accomplished (No Matter How Small) | ||
| Ask Them a Question (Thought Provoking, Probing into Their Interests) | ||
| Short Exercise (1 set of pushups, jumping jacks, jump rope) | ||
| 30 min – 1 Hour | Play Catch | |
| Shoot Hoops | ||
| Tea Party | ||
| Play moderate length game (Checkers, Yahtzee, etc) | ||
| Exercise routine | ||
| Walk around the neighborhood | ||
| Make your own Popcorn | ||
| Paper Airplanes | ||
| Jump Rope games | ||
| Make hot chocolate (don’t forget the marshmallows!) | ||
| Nighttime reading (Try different voices and characters) | ||
| Practice subjects child is struggling in (In a fun way!) | ||
| Tag (try multiple variations) | ||
| Kickball | ||
| Limbo, then use stick to see how high they can jump over | ||
| Tell a story from your childhood | ||
| Coloring together (you can print out free coloring pages of their favorite characters/things) | ||
| Play-Doh fun | ||
| Do a Sudoku, Crossword, or Word Find together | ||
| A Few Hours to Kill | Go for a Hike | |
| Make/bake something together (cookies, pizza, whatever) | ||
| Blanket fort (the more Epic, the better!) | ||
| Science project | ||
| Build a bird house and stock it | ||
| Plant something | ||
| Go for a run together | ||
| Grill hotdogs | ||
| Picnic | ||
| Library trip | ||
| Water fun (squirt guns, sprinklers, pool, slip and slide, water balloons) | ||
| Paint something together (or any art project) | ||
| Bike ride | ||
| Build ice cream sundaes | ||
| Go to a park | ||
| Do a Puzzle Together | ||
| Hide and Seek (if older kids, blackout style with no lights) | ||
| Family Game Night | ||
| Teach them one of your favorite games from your childhood | ||
| Photography (take pictures together, can have them framed and displayed) | ||
| Build an epic Lego structure | ||
| Mini golf | ||
| Roller skating rink (yep, they still have those) | ||
| Bowling | ||
| Planned Events | Camping (a trip, or can be backyard or even living room) | |
| Lunch date – a meal, coffee, milkshakes, etc | ||
| Overnight trip (hotel, maybe one with a pool) | ||
| Daytrip (pick destination together, or surprise!) | ||
| Theme park | ||
| Zoo | ||
| Learn something together (online, books, local classes) | ||
| Scavenger hunt | ||
| Take them to work | ||
| Fishing trip or outing | ||
| Teach them something you know how to do well | ||
| Volunteer somewhere together | ||
| Movie night with favorite snacks (maybe something you made together) |
Conclusion
Well that should be enough to get you started.
My recommendation is to save this on your phone where you can pull it up when you spot a moment coming up to connect.
Again, this is NOT a list of things you should feel the need to complete, but just a helpful kickstart to your brain to get you thinking of ways to connect with your kids.
You are their Superhero, and your time and attention is what they want. Remember, it is NEVER too late.
Enjoy the Journey.
Care to share any of your favorite activities you enjoy with your kids (or from your childhood)?
Just leave them in the comments below.
Until next time, stay cozy my friends.
thanks for this, just back from a weekend of camping but didn’t hit the mark with my son and decided to make myself a checklist more generally and found your post. It’s really good, thank you for taking the time to write it, I took a lot from it.
So happy to help sir! Really appreciate you sharing