As parents we spend a lot of our time nurturing our kids…we cook, help with homework, drive carpool. We create these crazy schedules for ourselves that oftentimes we feel like slaves to time and to our children. I recently felt overwhelming guilty for not attending my son’s track meet. I picked up the boys at 1:30 with my three year old grand niece in tow to drive carpool. We dropped off the boys, but stayed for an hour to watch the team warm up. When we left, I felt like I was abandoning my child, even though he wasn’t running until close to six, he was with his friends ( whose parents were not there, but probably feeling guilty at work, just like me), and his dad planned to watch him run and take the boys home. I know I’m justifying my guilt…then, I remembered a few weeks ago that I had a conversation with my sister about my parents never attending one of our tennis or basketball games while we were growing up. It wasn’t until we were adults that my mother, now retired watch us play tennis and my sister coach basketball. My dad has yet to make it to a game. Amazing enough we don’t harbor any resentment towards our parents or feel scarred that they were not there. I just remember coming home, having dinner and doing homework!

Time is priceless. It’s limited, yet expansive. It’s how we spend time with our children, not the amount that matters. In a twenty minute car ride, I learned what the kids ate for lunch, what classes they missed, who their toughest teachers were and more importantly, the children my son hangs with are polite, mindful, and considerate.