Farage, or could we profitably use that time by forgetting the iPad for half an hour and inventing a game with the kids on the spot – for example, ‘I’ve hidden £5 in a sock in the kitchen and you have to find it’, or ‘let’s play marbles with Maltesers and you can eat the ones you win’. Look, I just made those up in 10 seconds flat. Imagine what fun could be had with some serious thought behind it.
Can I leave early once a
month?: This is only the
germ of an idea but I want
to try and find out if I can allocate one day a month which doesn’t impact on my work responsibilities where I can leave just an hour early and put that time at home to good use – back in time to cook dinner for the family, or meet somewhere for coffee, or… anything really.
Dads' column
Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Plan like you would at work:
My daily professional life is
governed by one thing – my Outlook calendar. Tasks, meetings, everything. What if we could apply that rigour to our personal lives and actually calendarise time with our kids? It may sound cold and calculated, but I’m convinced it works. Monday evening – train play with daddy. One hour. Saturday afternoon. Library visit. Must choose 3 books and read a story together. 2 hours. Suddenly, you’ve got fun things to look forward to and the kitchen calendar becomes the centre of the house.
Don’t keep talking about
getting babysitting support –
do it: My wife and I don’t
live anywhere near our respective parents, meaning we talk a lot about babysitters. Talk. Not book. This month, I’m going to find one and we’re going to have a couple of nights a month where we actually go out and stop being parents, and become a couple again. Imagine that! A movie perhaps!
Bin the tablet and use the
time for something really
stupid: I know this will resonate with a lot of people. Do we really need to catch-up on that amusing Twitter feed about Nigel
So – these are all simple,
achievable things which don’t require great insight or planning to pull off. And that’s more than enough to start me off on a journey to get the work-life balance back for good. If you’re a pro at this already, let me know how you do it, and we’ll try and share that advice in these very pages.
Feel free to contact [email protected]..