I have noticed that my kids seem to lean toward quality of time rather than quantity. I was a stay at home Mom and tried to provide both. I must admit, by the end of the day, my nerves were a bit frazzled and quality went out the window. My kids give their children undivided attention when they are with them , go to all school functions and take them to parks etc. On the other hand, they will take short vacations by themselves, but do leave them in the hands of people they know and trust. Also have evenings out during the week. Both their kids went to day care at a very young age and then to pre school. They seem well adjusted and happy. I do notice, they don't seem to be able to entertain themselves on their own as well as my kids did and are given so many,many toys. How they raise their children is not my business and as I said they are happy little kids. Just wondering if other people have noticed this as well, and how did you raise your own kids?
I was a fulltime stay-at-home mom always, and in the same manner that my own mother raised me and my baby siblings, I mirrored the same with my own children.
I spent as much quality time with my children over the course of the day that I could (realistically), though it was busy times for sure, as spacing between my 6, meant I had two in diapers often, and between baby-care, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and whatever other miscellaneous duties called for my attention over the course of the day, I remember literally passing out when bedtime happened.
Quite often... regularly, when my oldest daughter and son were babies, my mom and/or younger sister would come over and help-out with the changing, the feeding, laundry, cooking, etc, and what a blessing that was, and then when my two daughters reached the age where they could start helping with their two baby brothers, I had both of them pitch-in, though they were exactly the same as I was at their age... excited to step up to the plate and help.
Never any daycare or pre-school for my kids, though I did have babysitters in when needed (evenings mostly), and my kids were good at occupying themselves when mommy was busy.
When the kids were playing, I did regular checkups on them to make sure all was well and that they weren't getting into trouble or doing something they shouldn't be.
I agree with you Ruth, 100%, as to my children entertaining themselves in a well-adjusted manner, the same as your children did, and I attribute that to me being the stay-at-home mom that I was. I didn't extend undivided attention to my kids from the time I lifted them out of their cribs in the morning, until I settled them back down in their cribs at the end of the day, and I always felt that was a good thing, because IMO it helps promote self-awareness and independence.
Every child (as far as I'm concerned) needs to learn how to entertain themselves outside the scope of mom or dad always being right there by their side.
