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A "normal" day in the life of a "normal" family should go something like this:
6:00am Mom & Dad up & get ready for work 6:30am Get kids up for school 7:30am Everyone leaves for their designated daily posts (school, office, day care, etc) 5:30pm Everyone returns home, dinner is cooked (or ordered out) 7:30pm House is straightened, parents get kids ready for bed 8:30pm Kids in bed (in designated rooms) 10:00pm Parents in bed to start it all over in the am
Even in a HS family most dads return home by a certain time to spend the evening with their family. In our family though, Dad is still working, he leaves around 7:00 every morning and usually doesn't come home until 9:00 pm or (usually) later. He also has one or two nights every other week that he is out of town. Sometimes he won't see the kids for several days in a row because they are in bed when he gets home & still sleeping when he leaves in the morning. This is his job, this is life & I don't expect it to change. He LOVES his family, we are well aware of that and he is fortunate enough to really enjoy his job. We would never ask him to change what he does. So our challenge is to find some way to spend more time with him without asking him to neglect his career. This is what we have come up with:
He works out every morning and he is willing & excited to have us join him. This means getting up at 4:00 am and riding bikes to the local YMCA (3m each way), running (the track) &/or swimming, and then biking home. At home the girls & I will iron Daddy's clothes for the day and make a quick & healthy breakfast that Daddy can eat while we do family devotions before he heads out the door. What a wonderful way to start the day, we get the best of him, while he is still fresh not tired from a long day at work and we are all working towards a common goal: a healthy, active lifestyle. This way he won't feel too bad that the kids are asleep when he gets home (and they will be when we get up at 4:00!) It is a solution for us and we are very excited to start this on Monday. I think the first step will be to aim for this 3 days a week and see how it goes, I know the kids are going to need an adjustment period. The girls are used to it but Jack will need a little time. My 2 little ones will be thrilled to get into the bike trailor for a ride, they don't care what time it is but Jack will have to peddle his trail-a-bike behind Daddy so we will see how he does, he loves being with Daddy so much that might outweigh the early morning wake up call.
Sometimes you just have to get creative and make some sacrifices for a higher goal, our family is worth it! |
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