My kids call any one-on-one time with my husband or me “special time.” In a family with four noisy, active little people and two busy adults, it does indeed require a special effort to carve out time alone. It’s so rewarding and such a force for bonding and connecting, though, that it should be given top priority. Even if only in half-hour snippets here and there. Whatever you can grab.

I had the privilege of taking my 12-year old son on a special jaunt to NY last week. He had been there with his grandparents a couple of years prior, but that was kind of a “grown up” trip–nice east side hotel, cabs everywhere, steak houses, tourist spots, and Broadway shows.  He wanted to see the grittier side of NY with me. I had spent nine years of my young adult life there, and he was eager to check out where I’d studied, worked, and lived. [Read more…]