Quality Time IS Quantity Time

Right now our children are 20, 20, 18, 16. Life still revolves around school semesters and the breaks in between. At the break of a semester, we always try to have a few times that we gather as a family and be with each other. It is easiest to schedule when they first arrive home and right before they leave for school. This week our Freshman leaves for Fish Camp, so we decided to get together Sunday for a long family meal and a couple of hours of fun later in the day.

We had lunch together. Diane made a great meal of T-bone steaks, baked potatoes, cantaloupe, and a huge salad bar. It was great eating and time well spent. Naturally I had to start things off with a bang and do a little yelling. But the gang soon shut me up so we could try and enjoy ourselves. The table was loud, bubbling, and boisterous, as it usually is, but you know, it is the kind of confusion I can tolerate with a smile on my face. They were poking fun at each other, laughing at each other’s lame jokes, talking about their work and school, and letting everyone know their schedule for the next couple of weeks. But best of all it was uninterrupted by phone, TV, or other distractions that can take something away from the dynamics of good family time.

Everyone had something to do for the afternoon, so we decided that we would get together after the last pizza was delivered for the evening and go play Putt Putt. Well it was the busiest pizza delivery night so far this summer and the last child did not get off from work until almost 10 PM. Three of our four children deliver pizza for their summer jobs. We determined it was not too late, so we left for Putt Putt and got there at 10:30. We had time to squeeze in 2 games before the place closed at midnight.

You haven’t lived, until you have played a game of Putt Putt in the middle of the night. Which by the way, is about the only way to play in Texas during the summer without a heat stroke. This group can be competitive, they all played high school varsity sports, but it is never too competitive. It is always kept at a calm level, no outbursts of anger, no screams of taunting, and more importantly, no in your face explosions of victory. But there are a lot of ‘you are going down’ speeches by the latest person to get a hole in one.

They seem to have a good grasp of why we do things like this as a family. They understand, and have been taught, that there is no substitute for time. There is no such thing as “quality time” in our way of thinking. Quality time IS Quantity time. Nothing makes up for minutes upon minutes, upon hours of time spent with each other. No amount of intensity can make up for the time spent face to face with someone you love. I cannot think of any group of people I would rather be with, than these five individuals that make up my family.