I missed joining this meaningful once-a-month meme. Thanks to Jona, a fellow mom from Binan, who paid me a visit here and reminded me of Marriage Monday through her entry as I visited her back. So here I am catching up with this month's topic which I can surely relate with being a mom myself.
As both hubby and I are working, we see to it that we give time for each of our three precious jewels. Thanks to what advance technology can offer we can now update each other even if our kids are miles away from us. Imagine centuries back when families had to wait for eternity to receive a letter from a loved one. There were no telephones or cellphones yet and telegram was yet expensive and people could say only a few words. But now, we can call or send an SMS very often by cellphones or even voice chat via Skype, Yahoo Messenger, etc. seeing our loved ones face-to-face via webcam while we talk to them. So we have no more excuse no matter how busy we are or how far we are from our kids as parents not to be able to communicate with them or to reach them out. It is just a matter of giving time. And of choice! I learned something great from the movie Voyage of the Unicorn that if we parents specify bonding time with our kids, they will always remember that. In the movie, the teenage girl always pauses at 3pm to bond with her mom in thought even after she already passed away. What a nice thought, isn't it? In our family, we lock off weekends for family time both for church and bonding together.
8-8-8 Principle. How it works?
We have 24 hours a day. How do we use these 24 hours? My Thai friend gave me a very feasible equation for this: 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep (exclusive for ourselves for good health and well-being so that we can be more effective in our work and in parenting) and 8 hours for miscellaneous. It may include 2 or 3 hours for household chores for us working moms if we don't have any helper (lucky if we have one we can use this time with kids and hubby and other relationships), an hour for exercise, an hour for our hobby such as reading (or blogging), an hour to go to the market or buy groceries, etc... and now how much is left? 2 hours? 30 minutes for eating, an hour for taking a shower, getting dressed and so on... 30 minutes left... So is this the only time left to bond with our kids and loved ones on a daily basis? If we still take this away from them, what will happen? We can no longer teach them the values we want them to learn. I remember my parents always gathering us when we were still kids for a family worship every night after dinner. That's the story time, Bible reading, values inculcation time and family prayer time. We grew up with the same pattern and this is what I want my kids to grow up with so that they can pass it on to the next generation in our family as well.
The longer family bonding time, not just the time when both hubby and I are tired from work or always rushing, is the weekend. We are more relaxed on weekends and thus we are more patient in dealing with our kids affording them more quality time. We go to church together, chat with each other, visit friends, learn things together such as cooking, have a picnic and play together at the park or do the things we enjoy together as a family.
More interesting entries on the topic, Adding Kids to the Mix at Chrysalis.
6 comments:
Hello sis! :) How are you? I have a new blog and I'm following you again. I've been busy with both work and tending to Aori's schooling. I have a lot of unfinished drafts in this blog.
But I'm working on updating them soon. So if you have time, please visit :)
I love the way you've broken down the 24 hours. Like you, I give emphasis to family time over my career. We try to be there for our son while he still wants to hangout with us.
Wonderful thoughts. It's obvious you place a high priority on giving quality time to your children. There really is no limit to the number of hours they would spend with us, is there?
I especially liked this: "we have no more excuse no matter how busy we are or how far we are from our kids as parents not to be able to communicate with them or to reach them out. It is just a matter of giving time."
I like the 8-8-8 division of time. I've seen it before, but you've reminded me again. It's certainly a helpful guideline when schedules are so full.
It was nice to have your friend Jona with us this month. Thanks for taking time to join us for Marriage Monday this month, Nice A!
8-8-8 Principle. Okay, I will call it that way from now on.
Thanks a lot e-Mom for such a very inspiring host. This gives me one of the reasons to miss Marriage Monday. You really take time to visit each participant and leave them with your wise encouraging words.
@MushaMommy Judy, okay sis I will visit your new blog soon. Yes, we can make 8-8-8 a good principle in life.
Yes, we need to give priority to our children. Now that I have a baby who needs my full attention after work, I intentionally lessen my time in front of the computer. You know waht I mean... less blogging. Time will come that I will go back to it more actively. Probably after my thesis:) Good to hear you're giving more time to Aori, too. Miss you sis Juds!
Nice one, Nice A! Bible reading should really be a part of our bonding time with our kids despite of our busy schedules. I'm glad you joined ;D
Heartifying!
A Time To Weep and A Time To Laugh
@Jona, when our 2 kids were still practicing how to read, we had them read Juniors' Devotional Book which offered very interesting stories and Bible verses. It was really a good way to teach them values and reading comprehension because we had to ask them what they picked up from the story after reading it.
Thanks for being contagious, sis Jon. God bless.
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