How busy parents make time for their kids
MAKING time for children while they’re on a busy schedule can seem nearly impossible for the working parent who knows that a good child/parent relationship should always be priority. And this is why many parents find creative ways to spend time with their children.
How do they manage? A few parents explain below how they prevent their children from feeling neglected.
Jasmine, 44, real estate developer:
One way that I get to spend more time with my children is by being super efficient at work so that I won’t need to take my work home. That way I can hug my two boys and watch and discuss their day, or even get in and start playing video games with them. Also, I take advantage of the time we spend on the road to school and even when I pick them up. So it’s no phones unless there is an emergency or some other special circumstance. Also, two Saturdays per month I take them shopping or something else that they like doing for a few hours.
Ashley, 29, cashier:
I work as a cashier in the day and a waitress at night, so I barely see my children, but I am grateful that my mother can step in. I know that this is not necessarily spending time with my kids, but I write them notes when I go in to nap and they reply. On Sundays I am home and while all I want to do is sleep, I try to help all four of them with homework and play with them a little and treat them maybe to ice cream, depending on how money is at the time. But just any available time I get I try to talk to them or play with them.
Michelle, 36, accountant:
My husband and I both work and sometimes after we drop them off at school, we don’t see them until at night when they are asleep most times. On Wednesday nights, though, we plan family activities like movie night and Scrabble or chess — whatever they want to play — and we make sure to show up for this. On the weekends — mostly Sundays because many Saturdays we work — we will do a family outing and so we get to catch up. Sometimes we do it at home, too, even while doing basic things like household chores together.
Kasia, 28, teacher:
I am a single parent and between school, lesson plans, grading, extra lessons and extra-curricular activities, I am stretched. What makes it difficult is that my little person is demanding of time, and so now I have to set up my life in a way so that she is always a part of my spare moments. From creating my to-do list to planning activities for kids at school, or dishes and laundry, I allow her to help me. Sometimes, because the school is so close to mine, I will take her for a lunch break. It’s not a lot of time but we make it work. On weekends when she doesn’t go to her dad we do girls’ stuff — maybe pedicure, our facials or hair, you know, just little things that she would like.
Donovan, 36, mechanic:
Thank God for blessing me with two boys! To make the money to feed them and still have time for them is very hard because, honestly, when I go home all I want to do is sleep. But many times I will bring them to work because I am the owner of the shop and I can teach them things, and we get to have our little man talk. Sundays, if we don’t have any cars to go out to, we will play ball together or we will take their mother out.
