August 10, 2007
Reading Brings Us Together (And Makes For One Sleepy Toddler)
Finding quality family time when both parents work is difficult. As a wife and mother, I often struggle with maintaining balance between work and home. And on a greater scale, I find it challenging to spend time with my husband and our son equally.
I know that equality in marriage is wonderful in theory, because household responsibilities get in the way when I’m not working 9 to 5. If anything I spend my non-working days with Dawson, coloring, bike riding, walking and playing outdoors.
My husband is often absent when it comes to “family” time because his work schedule isn’t as flexible, whereas I have weekends off. But I realize how important it is for Dawson to spend time with both his parents together. And so we try to make time.
One of the ways we spend quality time together is watching family movies. For a mere two hours, once a week, we can sit down in the living room and watch 101 Dalmations, Shrek, Cars (for the 90 bazillionth time) or our latest favorite, Charlotte’s Web.
Another thing we’ve tried is reading books together. Most days I read to Dawson before bed, and on the rare occasion, Doug will read to him as well.
Last night we sat together on the couch, Dawson sharing part of our laps, and read the book Murphy Jumps a Hurdle, that we borrowed from the library. We love this book because our dog happens to be named Murphy.
Doug and I took turns reading the pages and Dawson was so happy to be with us that he fell asleep, mid-book.
“Honey, I think he fell asleep.”
“Seriously?” I look down at the Doodlebug, fast asleep in our arms.
“This book-reading thing is awesome. Why didn’t we do this before?”
“I don’t know, too busy I guess,” I say. “Who’s going to put him in his bed?”
“Let’s just keep reading until we know he’s really asleep.”
And so we continued to read and occasionaly kiss our son on the top of his head. And I realized that family time is wonderful, even if it is few and far between.
(But if we had a Wii? I guarantee we’d be hanging out together more often. Seriously. How fun!)
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This post is brought to you in conjunction with Parent Bloggers Network & EA’s Wii-Boogie, a family gaming experience. Shake it. Sing it. Create it.
What are your favorite family activities and how do you find the quality family time? And if you don’t have quality family time, how do you make up for it? What challenges do you face?
Tell us all about it in a post on today, August 10, and you’ll be entered to win a Nintendo Wii along with the new family video game Boogie. Then you’ll have no excuse for not being able to find any fun family activities! Click here for participation requirements.
To read other posts about quality family time, click here!
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**Also, I’m at Vodkarella’s today. Come visit me!
Posted by Dana @ 6:18 AM • Blog Blasts
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August 10th, 2007 at 8:57 AM, Leslie Says:
What a beautiful family moment. Dana, you are quite a writer.
Reading is a great family activity for us. Sometimes it’s the only way to quiet our house down!
August 10th, 2007 at 9:12 AM, dana Says:
Oh, Leslie! That’s so sweet of you to say! Thank you! I’m sure Julia loves to read and be read to.
Dawson practically begs us to keep reading — sometimes we read 4 books before he goes to bed, and he loves going to the library every single Tuesday to check out a new book!
August 10th, 2007 at 9:32 AM, The Parent Bloggers Network » Let’s Boogie While We Blast! Says:
[...] Reading Brings Us Together (and Makes For One Sleepy Toddler) [...]
August 11th, 2007 at 11:22 PM, motherofbun Says:
That IS a wonderful way to connect and get some snuggles fron your little man!
August 13th, 2007 at 8:47 AM, dana Says:
Lisa, we really do enjoy it. Mostly because he’s quiet the whole time we’re reading.