Spend Global Day of Parents Just Being Their Person

Most parents don’t know Global Day of Parents exists, and that’s a shame. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day get all the cards and brunch reservations, but Global Day of Parents falls on June 1st and was created by the United Nations to honor the role parents play in raising and protecting children. One day in the calendar to recognize the daily, unglamorous, deeply important work of showing up for a small human. And it’s a day for every kind of parent, from moms and dads to grandparents and guardians.

Here are easy ideas for Global Day of Parents that fit into a normal Sunday and still feel like something.

Start the day with a special breakfast together

The simplest thing in the world, and somehow always meaningful. Make pancakes. Let your preschooler crack the egg (mostly into the bowl). Let them stir. Let them scoop the chocolate chips. The breakfast doesn’t have to be photo-worthy. The point is the doing-it-together.

If pancakes feel ambitious, try fruit kabobs on small skewers. Easy, kid-doable, and they look like a celebration even though they took six minutes.

While you eat, ask one slow question. Try “What’s your favorite thing about us?” or “What’s something fun we did this year?” The answers from a preschooler are gold.

Make a “favorite things” list together

Get a piece of paper. At the top, write your child’s name. On their list, fill in their favorite color, food, song, animal, place, and game. Below that, your child can dictate or scribble (or both). Then flip the paper over and do yours together while they “help.”

This one does a few things in twenty minutes. Preschoolers get practice naming preferences, which is a real skill at age three or four. Your child gets to see that you have favorites too, which is a tiny mind-blower. And you’ll find the paper six years from now.

Tape it to the fridge for the day.

Get on the floor and let them lead

Block towers, magnatiles, dollhouse, dinosaurs, train tracks. Whatever your kid loves, get on the floor with them and follow their direction for thirty solid minutes. No phone. No “let me just check this.” Just play.

Shared play between parent and child gives parents the chance to fully engage with their child and see the world from their child’s perspective, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Letting your preschooler direct the play, even when their plot involves a dinosaur attending a tea party with a fire truck, is one of the most generous things you can do.

The catch is that thirty minutes feels long to a parent who isn’t used to it. Set a timer. The first ten minutes are fidgety. The next twenty are surprisingly nice.

Read a book that names what you mean to each other

Books help small kids understand big feelings. Read one that gets at the parent-child bond, and check out our guide to maximizing bedtime stories for more ways to get the most out of storytime. A few books stand out for this.

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney fits this morning. Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare try to out-measure each other on love, which is the game your preschooler already wants to play with you.

In The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin, a parent imagines everything their child might grow up to be. Warm illustrations, inclusive framing, and a text that sits well in a preschooler’s lap.

I Love You to the Moon and Back by Amelia Hepworth follows a bear cub and parent through a full day together. Short, direct, good for the youngest end of the preschool range.

Read with your preschooler in your lap if they’ll let you. Three years from now they’ll be too big for it, and right now they fit just right.

End the day with a “thank you” exchange

Before bed, tell your preschooler one specific thing you love about being their parent. Not a generic “I love you.” Something specific, like “I love how you laugh when you’re tickled.” Or, “I love that you always want to help me water the plants.”

Then ask them, “What do you love about being my kid?” The answers are wild and specific. They might be deep (“you give me hugs”). They might be silly (“you make me toast”). That’s the moment to write down.

That moment is what Global Day of Parents is really about. Not crafts, not events, not a big trip. Just naming it out loud. I love this. I love being your person.

When you’re looking for a preschool program that values the parent-child connection as much as you do, find one of our schools near you and come see how we partner with families every day.