Going One-on-One

I'll be pretty busy from here on out, with new responsibilities at my job, and so with the New Year comes a resolution on my part to make sure I make time - an increasingly scarce commodity - for my most important relationships, specifically Amy and the kids.  So I will be making sure to have one-on-one time with each of them on at least a monthly basis, and am very much looking forward to these times.

Husband-wife time is, of course, paramount, yet probably the easiest to fall by the wayside, since time is scarce and what little free time we both have we'd prefer to devote to chores, errands, or personal recharge.  But we both acknowledge the need to work on our relationship, so we're just going to have to prioritize the allocation of our time and energy to this.

As for the kids, it won't be long before they start to really grow up, and Amy and I both want to make sure that as life complicates for them, they are being positively influenced by us and know they can come to us in whatever mess they've found themselves in.  So we both want to establish a personal connection with each of our kids, so that they can have some special time with each of us.  This also comes from a desire to replicate some of what is fun about vacation - why not get McDonald's or go for a walk or read a book together right here in Philly if we can?

When I explained this to the kids, Jada jumped all over it, but Aaron was confused.  He got stuck on "Daddy is going to spend some alone time with Mommy every month" and started whimpering that he wanted alone time with Mommy too, and that it wasn't fair that I got some and he didn't.  He didn't realize that, as part of this arrangement, he will in fact get some Mommy time (I assume that some of the times I'm paired off with Jada, Amy will do something fun with Aaron), and I couldn't quite convince him of this through the tears.

At any rate, the kids will get this once we actually do it.  So here we go.