Quality not Quantity

If you are a parent of multiple children, meaning more than one child, it seems you must determine the best way to share your time. It is important for every child to have time alone with their parents one on one as often as possible. Let’s get real though, life is busy and to actually have the time to spend with each child alone every day may be near possible for most of us.

I used to be really good about having time with my daughter, at least once every weekend she was home. During the week is difficult because she has school and goes to her Dad’s house like two times a night overnight. Then come Fall she has soccer on top of all of that, difficult to spend a lot of time with her one on one.

I have noticed over the years my daughter has seen a decline in me reading to her at bedtime, it’s always time for the boys to have 1-2 books each before they go to bed, it’s been that way their whole four and two years of life. My daughter never used to have me lay with her after she reached maybe age 6, but she is now 8 years old and doesn’t even get a song sung or book read. I realized the other night that I rush off to get kids in bed so I can work, and the boys don’t sleep very well so as soon as my sons are asleep I am logged into work, I really don’t want to miss a moment I have to work.

That was so bad of me, I was missing out on the half hour to hour I could potentially be spending quality time with my daughter! Don’t get me wrong it’s not like she was begging me to spend time with her, she was happy reading next to me or chatting with me while I logged into various sites to get work done, but it’s still not the same. My daughter was missing out and so this past week I started a routine with her and it has grown our closeness as mother/daughter again.

Every night after I get the boys to sleep, I do not think about work, not at all because my daughter needs her Mom before work needs me. I lay next to my daughter and we do our normal kiss, butterfly kisses and Eskimo kisses then I sing to her “You Are My Sunshine” and give her a big hug. This would be the point I say goodnight and love you then walk out of her room, but not any more.

I now spend time reading whatever she has chosen to read to her, even though she is way beyond her age in reading skills, it’s still nice to have her Mama read to her. We have been reading various copies of National Geographic Explorer that she gets at school and not only are we enjoying the time together but we are learning new things together!

Do you get alone time with your child or children? How do you juggle more than one child and spending quality time with each one on one or do you not make it a priority like me?