Week 2: Focus on family! Family time is being ever more quickly chipped away by the busy-ness of society. Both parents are working and you are lucky to only have to put in 40 hours per week to keep your job. A few things to think about are: A - Will your family be better served if you downsized your house, drove a more inexpensive car, etc – if not to cut down on work hours? This will reduce your costs and possibly get you or your spouse going from full to part-time work or not work at all to have at least one of you there for your kids after school. This is especially important for infants to pre-school age kids who are not in school yet or only go for a half-day. If at all possible, find a way for one parent to be at home. Don’t ship them off to daycare if you can help it. These are some of the most formative parts of your child’s life and they need you, not strangers. B – Is your 50, 60, 70+ hour per week job REALLY NECESSARY? Can you ‘downsize’ your life (house, car, etc) and move to a 40 hour per week job? This is especially true for those with a family. Kids grow up fast. They really need our attention. Working 40 hour+ per week is reasonable if you are just out of school and need to prove yourself to get experience, but if this is ongoing after you have a family, it will take a toll on you and your families happiness. This week: 1 - TV off at dinnertime with your family…talk! 2 - Spend your after-dinner time with your kids helping with homework, doing an activity, etc. Playing video games with them does not count. Try to get a good hour or two in. Even better, spend all of the time after dinner and before bed with your family. Once it’s the kids bedtime, then it’s YOUR time (hint, get your kids to bed early!). --> Things to do: outside activities (hiking or sports), arts and crafts. Build something with your children – models, Lego’s, anything. Long-term, multi-month projects are great such as model airplanes where your child has the satisfaction of flying it once it is done. Teaching your kids to use their hands to build something is invaluable. *If you know something that has helped you develop into a better adult that your parents did for you, reciprocate. Example, my parents were required to have me read a-page-per-night from a ‘Victory Drill Book’ – phonics based reading. It is not required for me, as a parent, to do for my kids now, but since I feel it helped me so much to become a better reader and speller – and just loving to read, I am taking extra time and supplementing this with my kids homework. Sure, it’s more time from me, but the result is that my son is at the top of his class in reading and writing. Don’t be selfish with your time, your kids are half-you and they deserve all the help they can get into developing into smarter, better adults. -SINGLE? Read a book, think! Keep the TV off during some of this time.