You leave for work early in the morning so you can get to work before any of your employees. When you’re heading out the door, your wife is waking up the kids and getting them ready for school. When you get to work, she’s making the kids breakfast. After a long day, you get home just in time to sit down for dinner then you sit down on the couch to relax. During the weekdays, it seems near impossible to be both a successful businessman and a successful father. We all hear how important family is but sometimes it gets difficult to know how you can balance your family life and still be proactive at work. Luckily, with the right actions, it’s not just possible, it’s easy.
One’s family is the most important thing in life. I look at it this way: One of these days I’ll be over in a hospital somewhere with four walls around me. And the only people who’ll be with me will be my family.
–Robert Byrd
- Always Be Home in Time For Dinner
This isn’t something that you should try and argue about with your wife. You should always be home in time for a family dinner. Nothing feels more lonely than to sit down for dinner without the father there. You might not think it, but your children notice that you’re gone. Young children who grow up with family dinner grow up happier and healthier. They are able to foster better relationships with people outside the home and they’re less likely to have eating disorders like anorexia or obesity. Children who eat home-cooked meals with their parents present are also more likely to enjoy more varieties of foods. They are more daring in food options as well and grow up respecting the unity of the family.
- Always Plan Ahead for the Weekend
Try your best to reserve your weekends for the family. Your wife and your kids will love that you’re able to reserve a full two days for just them. Don’t take work calls or meetings on those days and make sure that your family knows that you’re there for them. Get together with your wife and plan a fun activity that includes the children. You can go out on boating trips, take trips to national parks, go out to the movies, or even spend one-on-one time with one kid. You could take your son or your daughter out on a fishing trip have a daddy-daughter or a daddy-son date to make sure that your kids know that you love them. If you have a pool in the backyard, host family pool parties or look into getting one if you don’t have one close by. To ease the financial worry about getting a pool look into the process to finance swimming pools so that you won’t have as much stress during the process. When a father is absent from the home too often, the kids will grow resentful towards them and feel as if they aren’t loved. It is so important to spend the necessary time with them.
- Spend Your Evenings With the Family
After a long day at work, it’s tempting to zone out on the couch and watch a game. What your children see and understand is that you’ve been gone all day and now that you’re home, you don’t want to play with them. It gives off the vibe that you’re uninterested in their lives. Instead of sitting down, invite them to sit with you. Watch something they enjoy and ask your kids about their day. Talk up the ups and the downs and make sure that they know how much you care about even the little details. Showing interest in their days when they’re young helps your children to be more open as they grow up through the teenage years. If you establish good communication at a young age, you won’t have to deal with the rebellious teenager phase as much.
You should know that your family is the most important thing that you have. Of course, it’s important to provide for them, but it’s more important to make sure that your wife and your kids know they you’re present in their lives. Work ends after a few decades, but your family is something that you have for your entire life. They are with you through every event and will be there to comfort and guide you. Make sure that, above all else, you put your family first.
