I started writing this post and after four days of working on it, realized it is too long to fit it all in one place. So I decided to split it into parts. Here is part 1 of, what I hope to be, a 5-part series.
If you’ve ever had a toddler, you’ve probably struggled with this question many times: it’s 4 hours before lunchtime/naptime/dinnertime/sleeptime–what can we do? I struggled with this for a long time before I realized some things–things that may help save you some time.
It Doesn’t Have To Be Something Special
When you don’t get a lot of time with your child, you want to make the most of the time that you get with him, so there is so much pressure that you have to make this time count. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself for the first year of my son’s life to make all my time with him memorable, which is why this one came as a shock to me–you don’t have to be doing something special for it to be something special to your child. Some of the fondest memories of my time with my dad are surprisingly simple things–where he was paying attention to me. On days when you come home too tired to take him out to play in the park or for a long walk in the stroller, you could just hang out around the house with him–read him a book or just sit with him and watch him play. Just the fact that you’re there, paying attention to him, may matter much more to him than a hasty trip to the park when your mind is somewhere else.
So go get a towel and play peek-a-boo with your kid. He’ll have tons of fun and you’ll forget about the crap you were dealing with at work earlier.
