Spending time with your kids: quality versus quantity

My kids are at the babysitter’s today.

I have been working for the last six and a half hours, and I still have an hour to go before I leave to pick them up.

I went upstairs a minute ago to grab a glass of milk (yes, and two Oreos) and I caught sight of a familiar red snowsuit. I could see them, just barely, from the kitchen window. They were all playing outside in the sitter’s backyard, throwing snowballs at each other.

In that moment — clutching my Oreos, standing in a quiet house, getting a ton of work done, and NOT being out in the freezing cold pretending to enjoy myself — I was really, really happy with our decision to get childcare one day a week.

Of course, I immediately felt a little guilty for being so grateful.

Read more about these kinds of feeeeeeeeeeeelings in this week’s parenting column, if you’re so inclined?

Click to read my column on childcare, no childcare, and related feeeeeeelings

xo