Time Given To Your Children
I went dining out with a group of my business colleague the other night. The group was big and we had to have a whole room for ourselves.
We talked virtually almost anything from Dinosaur to the recently discovered planet in our Galaxy. Suddenly, the talks shifted swiftly to a more tenderly subject of loving and caring for our children.
One father started to talk about how important a family is to a successful business man. You must have love and care for your children. “Certainly”, we all do that, said another father. But because we are businessmen who are very busy all the time as the word “busi-ness” suggests, we do not have much time for our children.
The talks went on and on and finally they came up with the conclusion in two simple words of “Quality time”. “Yes,” there was a consensus that because businessmen have to take care of so many aspects in running the business, they have only little time for the family. Thus, one must seize the opportunity of this limited time and spend it qualitatively with our children.
We should not do silly things like sitting around idly doing nothing. That is a waste of precious time. We must find activities to do together that will enhance father and children relationship. If we have only one or two hours a week for our children, we can not afford to just sit around doing nothing. In short, father should do their best for their children while being together.
Well, there may be some truth in the argument. But if we look at it carefully, it would sound fallacious. It may just be a pure excuse not to give time to their kids. The fact is your children will feel the warmth and love simply seeing you are with them. You may not be doing things together, but you are there just in case they need you. They feel secure. And who knows, they may really need you at any moment as accidents could happen anytime.
Also, quality time in many instances equals to a reasonable long length of time spending together. Timewise, you simply can not call 5 minutes a day or 1-2 hours a week a quality time. You really need to give enough time to make it a quality time. Quality may make up for some of the lost time but definitely it can never replace it. It may compensate for it if you do it sincerely. But if you emphasis on quality only all the time, you are not doing a good father’s job. When you say quality, you must specify how much time you spent in it. Sufficient time with good quality may be OK.
However, the reverse is also true for fathers who spend all days lying at home doing nothing except watching TV and getting drunk. Why the quantity if there is no quality at all?
In sum, fathers should not lie to themselves advocating either quality time or quantity time for their children. Quality time goes hand in hand with adequate quantity time
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