okay yeah Donna um you said you have three children what uh kinds of activities do you spend with them is it you know
okay um we have an eleven year old an eight year old and a three year old and um
uh-huh
uh my husband let's see he coaches basketball with Brian um so he spends time doing that with him planning and um practicing out side
uh-huh
um he's a real sports kind of person so he plays tennis with with the kids we all kind of play tennis as a family except the baby plays on the play ground we take turns with her um
um-hum
uh let's see we have a computer and we do a lot of things with the kids on the computer um
uh let's see what else we do oh i suppose we watch a little TV together we really don't watch i think as much TV as a lot of people we don't have HBO we do get the Disney channel for the kids
um-hum
uh-huh
uh my kids have the Nintendo which they play and my husband sometimes joins them with that
um-hum
uh my little girl Jennifer likes to do crafty things and i'll take some time and do that with her
and of course we always read a bed time story at night and even the the older kids sometimes sit down and and will join in and listen to a story um
uh-huh that's neat
basically the story person because my husband doesn't have he gets home from work late or whatever and and usually once in a while he'll read the story to the little one but that's basically my job um
yeah
so do you find it difficult to find time or is it pretty natural uh-huh
it is it is hard because you know at the end of your day you want time for yourself and and it and that's kind of cutting into your your time
yeah
yeah
and with the kids getting older now on the weekends they get to the bed like at ten which really is late but you know on school nights the two older ones get to bed about nine they go upstairs at nine
uh-huh
and um now this weekend we'll have a baby sitter come and uh my husband and i will go out to dinner and come home and um probably not too late maybe maybe Brian will still be up and
um-hum
spend some time with him but it is it's really hard you have to be a very unselfish person to to spend a lot of time with your kids i think
yeah yeah do you work during the day
uh no i don't work i last year um i had a little part time job in a private um high school tutoring um high school students with learning disabilities that was two days a week and even just those two days
um-hum
just seemed like it was a lot i don't know how i admire people that that can do it all but with three kids and laundry and keeping the house the way i i want it kept it is hard
yeah
yeah
i can imagine yeah
um even just finding the time to do the grocery shopping and everything and that's another thing i'll take one of the kids with me grocery shopping um usually on the weekend and
um-hum
that's kind of like a special time for just myself and my little girl or myself and my son and and they'll be my helper and then they'll get to pick out some of the favorite snacks that they get to pick out so try to do things like that but it you know it's it's uh
um-hum
yeah
yeah
and then of course they have a pretty um busy social calendar too you fit it in with all that the that
uh-huh
yeah so what do you feel are the current trends in the way families spend time in general you know in America
i i think a lot of people a lot of people sit sit their kids in front of the TV and HBO and rent movies and and
um-hum
kind of leave them to their own means um i think you know it's very very easy to fall into that trap and i'm not um totally innocent of that because there's times when you just stay here watch a tape but um
yeah
um-hum
yeah
um i think different parts of the country i think in Plano and maybe this area in Texas there's a lot of community activities that parents could join in with their kids people are real
um-hum
sports conscious and really get involved with their kids sports activities and you know but um
oh that's good yeah
yeah well families are facing a challenge i know that with i'm a newlywed and we're you know thinking about having children sometime in the next couple of years and
what um-hum
um-hum and it's it's very hard because when you get used to two salaries it's very hard to to cut back to one and um um
yeah
but you know if you have the type of job i have a friend that's a nurse and she can pick her hours and that's a a great career i i wish i would have gone into uh nursing because she has such a flexible schedule but it's very hard to uh
um-hum
yeah
spend time with the children and uh and your husband and
um-hum
do everything at once
yeah but i do feel like it's important that you make the time for children because
well i think it's a big it's a big um responsibility you just don't have children so that you can continue the lifestyle you had when you were single
yeah
yeah
when you have children you have to say now this is different and you do have to give things up i i personally feel that it is extremely important to be with your own child um
um-hum
for the at least for the first two years of their lives i mean if you can possibly swing it because they
yeah
