THE
W O R K I N G
PARENTS’
GUI DE TO
WEEKNIGHTS
ONE NIGHT when my older son was 12, he
said in the cheeriest of tones, “Mom, I’ve
spent more of my life with Mable than
with you or Dad.” Mable is our nanny,
you should know, and if you’re counting
waking hours, he is technically right.
File that under things that a working
parent never, ever wants to hear. We
already torture ourselves with that math.
On weekdays, we might get just two
hours with our kids each morning and
two hours at night (depending on their
ages), and it’s easy to feel teary and guilty
if you compare those 20 hours with what
the sitter or the day-care center gets.
When Serena Williams was a new mom,
she lamented on Twitter that she’d
missed her baby’s first steps while she
was training for Wimbledon. What
parent couldn’t relate? Sure, there will be
many milestones as our kids grow, but
when you miss one, it rips your heart out.
“Milestones are wonderful, but
they’re only a tiny fraction of what gives
life meaning,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky,
Ph.D., professor of psychology at the
University of California, Riverside, and
If you’re frustrated that you
get only a few hours with your kids, try these
simple strategies to optimize
your moments, and trust that they’re enough.
by LISA LOMBARDI / illustrations by BIJOU KARMAN
PARENTS 128 SEPTEMBER 2019
LIFEÑAdvice