One of my goals for this year is to spend more one-on-one time with each kid. With three of them, this is never logistically easy, but tends to be worth it.
So this week, on Monday, I accompanied my 5-year-old’s kindergarten class to the National Academy of Sciences here in Philadelphia. This museum is known around these parts as the “dinosaur museum.” I was put in charge of my son and a handful of his friends. We had a great time! We came up with a name for our team, and caused a bit of mischief when we got kicked out of the butterfly exhibit after we tried to sneak in a second time (butterflies are cool!). We pet a rat and a turtle and a millipede. We went on a quest for the somewhat hidden diorama of a panda bear and found it right before we had to get back on the bus.
I also got to go to my middle son’s brunch today at his preschool. He and I picked out muffins at the store together and then sat together to sing songs on the rug, though as he quickly told me, “Mommy, none of the other grown-ups are singing.” Not true, some were! Maybe he thought I was just a bit too enthusiastic.
Over at Fortune.com I wrote about Bruce Feiler’s book, The Secrets of Happy Families, with a piece called “Should you treat your family like a business?“
At CEO.com I wrote a piece called Employee productivity: What should leaders track?
At CBS MoneyWatch I tackled a relatively unremarked upon part of Sheryl Sandberg’s book in a post called Stop asking people to mentor you. I discussed the Pew Research Center data in a post called Now Dad’s got a second shift, too. And I gave advice on How to stalk your next big project.
AOL Jobs picked up the post here from yesterday in a version they called Is housework hurting your career?
I am intrigued by a Daniel Gulati post at HBR on professional patience called Stop Fast-Tracking Your Career. How long should you give a job or a gig before you decide to “fail fast” and move on?
A website called ProBueno offers ways for people to turn talents into donations.
Well-Heeled Blog asks what you’d pay for an extra hour in the day. Personally, I’d prefer to get any extra hours not in the form of a 25-hour day, but lumped together in an extra secret week that I could use to travel.
NicoleandMaggie do a post (referencing All the Money in the World) on sweating the big stuff vs. sweating the small stuff.
And I think we set a record here this week for comments on this blog. Up well over 100! Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Photo courtesy flickr user *ejk*
I love the idea of having one-on-one time wih each kid, I will have to remember that when I have kids. When I was a child my mother would usually spend time with my brother and I at the same time, and I think this led to us competing for her attention…
It’s funny that you mention the “Are you my mentor chapter?”. That’s the one I’ve just finished reading, and it made me both laugh and think. I agree with the way she equates it to wating for Prince Charming. I wouldn’t have thought to express it like that, but I’ve often been surprised when I see young women doing that. It would just never occur to me to walk up to somebody I barely know and say that. However, if I admired somebody from afar, I might think of some smart questions to ask them or interesting tidbits to pass along to them that might spark a relationship. Otherwise, it’s like a high school kid moving to a new school, walking up to somebody and asking, “will you be my friend?”