Your kids ask for a lot. Money. Patience. They ask for toys and games and attention. They demand chicken nuggets after you hand them the hamburger they told you they wanted. They ask for forgiveness, and they ask for trust.
But most of all, they ask for time. They’ve been asking for time since they were born. They asked for the time you needed for sleep. They asked for time that would have otherwise gone to your career or your health or just hanging out.
And now…and now, here they are asking for more time. Your son is asking you to stay for a few minutes because he’s not ready to head into his kindergarten classroom. Your daughter is asking if you can drive her to a friend’s house. Your teenager is asking you to sit down and talk for a minute (and then probably asking for money).
You don’t have more time to give…and yet, you’ll need to find a way to give it. It’s fine though. We talked about this recently: You already blew up your life. You already hopelessly bankrupted yourself from a time perspective. So embrace it. Just put it on your tab. Just give it to them.
One more story. One more ride at the theme park. One more round on the game console. One more minute. You can spare it. You can find a way to pay for it.