I often lament to my girlfriends that I don't feel like I get to spend enough time with my kid. It's the constant nagging guilt of the working mom. Also, I am a social person and I like to see my friends from time to time, which means sometimes leaving my son at home with Daddy or a sitter, which only adds to the guilt factor.

I get an hour or so in the morning, wherein he and I dash around trying to eat and get ready for daycare/work, and I get about two and a half hours in the evening, but that time is packed to the gills with dinner cooking, laundry, baths, toothbrushing, and night-night routine. Rarely on a weeknight do I just get to sit down and "play" with Johnny.

And now it's Christmastime, so the nights are even busier, more filled with activities or cooking or addressing envelopes or wrapping gifts.

I think up fun things to do all the time with him, things like making crafts or running through parks, but let's face it: crafts are messy and time-consuming, and it's a bit nippy and wet for a park. Plus, the dishes aren't going to do themselves.

Last night we got out a Little People pirate ship and I sat on the floor with him for fifteen minutes, rearranging the little "guys" and making it play "A Pirate's Life For Me." It wasn't necessarily a craft or a trip to the zoo, but look, I'm trying.

Once, when I complained to a girlfriend about my lack of time with Johnny during the week, she said "Just make what you have count." And that stuck. A quality over quantity approach made sense to me. I might be in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher, but I can put him on the floor near me with some crayons and paper and talk to him about his picture. Or I might be cooking dinner, but he can sit on the counter with me and pour ingredients into a bowl and stir while we discuss the relative merits of Elmo v. Cookie Monster.

I have to admit, I don't really have the patience to sit down and help him paint with watercolors for an hour when I know in my head I have seventy-two odd tasks ahead of me. Plus, let's face it, it's just not my cup of tea. I can read to him forever and I can swim with him and I can lay on the couch and watch vintage Sesame Street songs on YouTube until the cows come home. But focusing on glue or paint with a two year old for more than nine minutes, for me, is a true measure of my patience and fortitude. I lack the crafty gene, as much as I wish I didn't. Vacation Bible School was largely a nightmare for me, seeing as my lanyard always looked more like a wadded up ball of leftover thread, and my attempt to create lambs out of cotton balls only resulted in my wearing shards of puffy cotton on my clothing and a craft that looked something like an abominable snow man, only after he's spent a few weeks surviving homeless on the streets of New York City.

So for my limited minutes of weekday bonding with my child, I'm focusing on the multi-task. I'm finding ways to get my jobs done AND nurture his social and emotional development. Tonight, I plan to have him stack all my Tupperware from large to small. Fun AND functional!