One to One Time with Kids
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Family on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:00 PM
On Sunday, Eric and I took the afternoon off, headed to a local lake and spent three hours hiking and talking. Moments like these feel extra precious these days, as my eldest (who will turn 18 next month), has one foot out the door these days.
The outing wasn’t planned to be an “Eric only” event, but Adam and Greg had music practice at church that kept them from joining us. As Eric and I spent the time chatting about books, college stuff, his friends and just life in general, it occurred to me that if Adam had been with us things would have been entirely different.
My boys are so close to one another - they love to talk about their common interest: Irish music. They can spend hours on end discussing the origin of a tune or a particular musician they admire. Greg and I, unschooled in all of it, simply sit back and smile at the depth of their relationship with one another. Now that Adam is attending Eric’s high school, they have a whole new realm of topics to discuss as the school year begins. If Adam had been on the hike, I would have enjoyed his company but would also have missed out on a terrific conversation with his brother.
Since he’s not driving yet, Adam spends more one to one time with mom these days simply being driven to activities, sports and lessons. He and I are also both big movie buffs, so we tend to go to the theater together.
I’ve never intentionally planned solo activities with me and the boys, but sometimes they occur and I always enjoy that time in a different way than a whole family outing. Do you plan unique activities with your children or try to focus on “one to one” time with them? Is this something better left to chance, or something that should be planned and organized?
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