I recently started in a new company. It’s in a different industry, with a different culture, a different way of doing things, and with a much younger workforce. Suffice it to say that my day is full and hectic with juggling all of my deliverables on top of learning new concepts and navigating new systems.

I wouldn’t really say that I’m already swamped with work, it’s just that I’m still adjusting to a world that seemed galaxies away from banking, my previous industry. Not only that, I’ve been away from full-time work because I did freelance for about ten months.

Even during the days when I’m working from home, I find it hard to stay away from my laptop even for just a few minutes. That meant that I couldn’t take Miguel to school anymore. I couldn’t also put Rafa to sleep for his afternoon nap because I’m usually in meetings right after lunchtime.

I only get to be with my two boys when I log out in the afternoon at 5 PM (overtime, included), which seemed like too little anytime anymore. The good news is that at least I wouldn’t have to commute home since, well, I’m just in my home office. Even so, our bonding time still feels too short.

As a solution, here are some of the things that I did:

Drop everything by the 8th hour of work. I figured that my kids’ afternoon playtime is limited from around 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM, it’s a wise idea to drop all work by around 5:00 PM so that I can still play with them. If I have to render overtime, I do it in the morning.

Dinnertime is also bonding time. I take care of feeding Rafa during dinner time while their yaya supervises Miguel’s dinner, who is currently polishing his skills in using the spoon.

Another wonderful opportunity to bond with Miguel and Rafa that I’ve realized is during their bath time. Their Mommy and I are away in the office most of the time while I work from home every Thursday and Friday.

Since I save time and energy on commuting, I could use these to bond with my kids during their bath time so I said to their yaya that I’ll just take care of their evening shower. Again, it’s an opportunity to talk to them and even sing nursery rhymes with them. I talk to them when I brush their teeth and I can see that Rafa really enjoys those moments.

On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to teach body parts to Miguel. His teacher told me that he needed help in identifying body parts so that’s what we’re working on at the moment.

When you are a working parent, it always feels that your time to do all the things that you need to do is insufficient. At times, we feel like we are bad parents for having so little time with our children; the traffic situation in our country is not helping at all.

As such, it’s good for us to find small opportunities and turn these into bonding moments with our children. For our case, it’s turning bath time into a bonding opportunity. After our evening bath, we also read stories to our kids to cap our day.

How about you, do you have any ordinary daily activities that you were able to turn into a bonding opportunity with your kids? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

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