New Year's Resolutions, Part II: Family Time

I have two big family resolutions.

One is to make sure that whatever else is going on, my husband and I have sex at least once a week.  This should be a no-brainer, I know, but parents of small children get busy and lazy and then the next thing you know, you're living with your platonic roommate/fellow soldier.  My favorite title on overcoming this slump is the Kimberly Ford's marvelous and inspiring Hump: True Tales of Sex After Kids.

The other one is to spend an uninterrupted ten minutes each day engaged with each of my children in an activity of their choosing.  In other words, stepping over them while I cook and they roll an empty can on the kitchen floor doesn't count, nor do errands or setting and forgetting them while I tidy up.  They pick the activity and I focus entirely on their activity for the full ten minutes.

Karen Maezen Miller, aka Momma Zen, recommends we spend an hour each day doing this.  In fact, in Hand Wash Cold, she says that this practice can reduce our kids' whining, tantrum-throwing, and other negative attention-seeking behaviors, because it fills them up with our love and attention, and they're no longer starving for it.  I adore and admire Maezen, and I treasure her blog and both her books, but I'm afraid that shooting for a full hour will set me up for failure.  I'm starting with the baby step of ten minutes per child, and God willing, I'll work up to more time as the year goes on.