Carving out Family Time

The universal complaint that I hear from women is there isn't enough time in a day to get all the things done that need to be done. The one area I personally worry the most about is spending time with the kids and husband. I'm on the run so much of the time that I feel I never really sit down and talk to them and let them know how important they are to me. Plus, as any mother of teenagers will tell you getting them to sit down and talk is almost impossible.

Mondays and Wednesdays are the most brutal for me (you'll find I will probably rarely write on those days) due to my daughter's dance and confirmation classes. However, I've also found that those are two days when I can actually spend some quality time with both my daughter and my husband.

My daughter's dance class starts at 5 on Mondays. I typically have my son take her to dance so I can get some running done before I need to pick her up at 6:30. She needs to be back at dance at 8:15 for her last class of the evening. Believe it or not, the time from when I pick her up and drop her off is some of the best time we have to spend together. I've found that instead of stressing about the hour and 45 minutes that we have to kill and trying to cram more errands into it, we drive to my husband's workplace and wait for him to be able to take a break. It's amazing what an hour in the car with nothing to do does to a teenager. Without the tv, computer and phones we get a nice chance to sit and visit. Something about a car is pretty freeing for the kids and they seem to want to chat about things. It's also nice for my husband since he works 2nd shift and doesn't get to see us to often. He really enjoys getting to come out to the car and visiting with us on Mondays and Wednesday, it helps him stay connected to the everday events in our lives.

I'm trying to learn to stop multi tasking and just enjoy my family when I get the opportunity. When in the car I really try to listen instead of going through the mental lists in my head. When watching our favorite TV shows that we recorded I snuggle with my daughter (she won't want to do that much longer!) instead of cleaning or going through stuff. Even something as simple as having my kids clean in the same room I'm in versus us each taking a room seems to loosen the tongues.

Let's all try to remember how quickly time goes by and enjoy each minute.