kids too
yeah
the hat
oh you laugh how many what ages
well uh twenty seven up
ah
and we had five
you've been through the fun part
oh yeah
and how about yourself
i have a four and a half and a three
oh well
so it's i i'm sure there's a lot of differences in the way in the way it's done now and then
yeah well
when mine were growing up i did some traveling and but not that extensively
but i always uh just made it a point you know to spend about ten minutes with each one of them
yeah
so it was an hour you know
yeah
but whether it was going back and laying in bed with them and just shooting the breeze or whatever telling them stories or reading to them but
what was the age difference between the oldest and youngest
six years
so they were all real close that's tough that's a lot of time
yeah
oh yeah we look back and wonder how we did it
did you both work your wife too or
no she never did
uh well qualify that she worked at home i'm sure
and
well yeah yeah
but that's uh well both my husband and i work and sometimes i feel like you know by the time i pick them up and get them home and get them fed i have very little time each evening maybe thirty minutes max
yeah
well that's plenty though
And well he spends a lot of time with them while i'm cooking and then i spend time with them while you know he's doing other stuff and and of course we try to spend a lot of time on the weekend
you know there's a lot of times my house may not be as clean as i particularly like it but it's neat it's straight and i can live with it because i do stuff with my kids you know
right
right well you you know with kids you're not going to have a neat house
well i've accepted that too that's true
and you know it it's tough to find time especially especially especially with both of them working
it is
yeah that's true
and you just have to set the time and say okay this is gonna be it
well that's true and and we do a lot of that on the weekends you know we try to spend Saturdays together if my husband golfs you know he'll do it during nap times things like that where they're not really missing the presence you know
right
right
and we do a lot of family things together we're we're kind of going the other direction this weekend we're planning a trip just he and i this is the first time we've gone anywhere without the kids since she was born four and a half years ago so
well that's good too
yeah that's good that way too
well i decided that you know you need that once in awhile that you you need to plan the quality time and and i do think that if you plan it and spend that and make it quality time you don't have to be there twenty four hours a day
yeah well that's what they say it it all it takes is about five ten minutes a day
but
yeah
and you know and as the kids got older i made them you know help me cut the grass and kind of made that a project too
sure
sure
or whatever and
and they think that's a family activity you know yeah that's great fun
oh yeah
and uh well yeah if you
my daughter's like mommy can i help you with the laundry of course you can absolutely yeah
yeah just keep them talking that way
but uh another thing we used to do is have family councils
uh-huh
every Sunday night
and what would you do what
discuss everything
that didn't agree with them and we'd take turns being president
oh
and everyone would get one's vote and i always thought we'd get outvoted five to two
yeah
but it never worked that way
so they would just pick whatever issue kind of was at a head that week and then
yeah well and we could bring up and we could bring up stuff too
oh
and that was always good time boy we really got to know the kids well
hum
i imagine and i imagine you still have a very close relationship with them
and
oh yeah in fact they were all in uh over the weekend for Easter
i
oh that's wonderful see i was raised in that type of family where you know you don't disobey me you mind me but if you have a problem with what we did or how we did it you can always come back and talk to me about it yeah
well we did too and and i remember the one daughter saying we had a a friend of hers that used to drive us up a tree
uh-huh
and she said hey i don't make fun fun of your friends so why make fun of mine
well
kind of run kind of hit us between the eyes
yeah yeah you don't think of it that way do you
no but that that was always good quality time for us
now that's good i like that idea
and they never had to attend but if if they missed it they had to abide by the rules
whatever was voted on huh
yeah and boy they'd they'd show up
well i think that's great
and we'd usually take notes and you know the younger kids uh
yeah
or maybe all of them needed help at one time or another
yeah
and uh
but they were usually tougher on themselves than they were on us and they loved it
i i think that's true i can remember times my parents would say well what do you think would be a fair punishment
yeah
and we would always come up with something that was harder than what they would have done you know so i do think it's right that they're harder on themselves you know
yeah
yeah
but uh boy i i feel for you and your husband well yeah my my uh
oh why is that
two of my uh
