One of the big things that I hit on in my writing about married men is that husbands and fathers need to be present and available to their wives and families. When my editor read a brief reference to this in one of my pieces she called me out. She stated that there is more to presence than just being around. Along with presences comes engagement - in other words, sitting on the couch watching baseball on sunday afternoon and consuming a 6-pack does not consistute being present.
My schedule is chaotic at best. Sunday evening we start prepping the family for the coming week. Every night of the week we have some sort of family or individual activity that requires a time committment and being away from home. As a family, it's not until Friday that we have a chance to collectively breath and spend some time together. Then, Saturday is busy again and we get another break on Sunday. This is how our lives are structured during the school year. Summers are a lot more relaxed and we have more opporunities to spend time together.
So let me ask you this - When do you get to spend quality time with your wife and/or family? How do you spend that time together? And how do you manage when life gets busy and you don't have the time to spend with your spouse the way you'd like to?
If you have time, leave a comment. Thanks for sharing.
1 comment:
Hi Bert,
I love your writing and understand how busy life can be, but just being there to run around and do the busy stuff is quality. It means you care to spend the time you can doing the things you have too.
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