Quality time vs. Quantity time
Sarah Josepha Hale was a 19th-century editor and the author of the nursery rhyme, Mary Had A Little Lamb. She’s also why most Americans spent extra time with family this week.
Sarah wrote letters to politicians for 17 years trying to persuade them to make Thanksgiving a national holiday (it was already observed by most Americans in New England). She wrote to President Lincoln in 1863, and after reading her letter he signed into action A National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.
At work, the quality of our time matters.
Most managers and clients don’t care how we get our work done. As long as our work is consistently high-quality and our behavior is ethical and legal.
And unless we’re paid by the hour, it doesn’t matter if a project takes us two hours. Or twenty hours. As long as we meet our deadlines.
Our professional time should be focused. Intentional. High quality.
But at home, the quantity of our time matters.
If our goal is to create a home full of love, there’s just no substitute for physical presence.
Intimacy can’t be scheduled.
Tenderness can’t be planned.
We can’t make an appointment with our children to get them to share their secret fears and dreams. We can’t put 30 minutes on our spouse’s calendar with an agenda and stated objective of strengthening our marriage.
Our moods and emotions may not line up with the quality time we block off. People don’t operate that way.
It’s impossible to plan the moments at home that strengthen our bonds with the people we love most. But if we spend enough time together. And we’re watching and waiting for them.
Those moments come.
