Quantity Time-I must admit I wasn't too surprised when I read that the American family spends 40% less time together now than they did 20 years ago. When you start to turn that into actual hours over a child's lifetime the numbers are staggering.
Lets say families used to spend 20 hours a week together (just over 3hrs/day), based on this study they now spend only 12 so that's turns into
8 less hours/week
34.6 less hours/month
416 less hours/year
7,488 less hours/(18 years)
312 LESS DAYS
That is like missing almost a full year out of your child's life! Watching Porter grow this past year I have begun to realize how short our time with our children at home really is- What can we do to take advantage of every moment of it
Quality Time- As a stay at home mom I am lucky that I do get a lot of "Quantity" time with Porter- what really got me to thinking is the issue of "Quality" time- When I started looking at a typical day in our lives I began to see lots of what I call "missed moments" little snatches of time here and there where I was to busy involved in what I was doing that I missed an opportunity with Porter- to teach, to play, to laugh or even just to be right there.
A few days ago as I was feeding Porter I noticed that when I feed him he stares off into space and it is somewhat hard to get his attention- which for him, my social little guy, is pretty uncommon. After giving it a little thought I realized that almost every time I fed him since he was born I was either reading a book or watching TV- no wonder he was ignoring me! It made me sad to think of all those little "missed moments" that I could have talked to him, sang him primary songs, or even just gazed into those sweet little baby eyes- now that our "feeding" days are quickly drawing to and end I wish I had taken the opportunity to develop that as "Quality" time for us rather than plodding through it as just another task to do.
My goal now is to make the effort to be there on his level interacting with him- not just letting him play at my feet while I type away or work on other projects.... Which may mean a few less blog posts or saving my scrapbooking till he's asleep but in the end I know I will be giving the most to what matters most- my priceless little guy.
That is my challenge to you this week to find at least one little way that you can improve the quality of the time you spend with those you love
3 comments:
Thank you for this post! I spend very large quantities of time with my son, but most of the time, it's me just trying to "get stuff done" while he vies for my attention. We're going to spend some time this week learning letters and painting together!
Great post! Ever since macy was born I have felt that I need to make sure I spend quality and quanity time with her. It doesnt happen every single day, especially since being so sick lately, but we do things together like just sit and talk, go outside and watch the stars, lay on the grass and watch the clouds, read books, color, crafts etc. I always want to savor every moment I have with her, I feel it is so important to build that relationship with my kids! Hopefully I will continue to do the same when the second baby comes!
I left you a tag on my blog if you want to play!
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