You can miss spending time with your child while they are standing right beside you.
Perhaps you are unpacking the shopping. They are telling you something, and you are listening while also looking for space in the fridge and remembering the washing. You want to turn towards them properly. There is still a bag at your feet.
Later, you save an activity you would like to try together. You can picture sitting down for it, putting your phone aside, hearing the rest of whatever they wanted to tell you.
That is the bit you would like more of.
When you think about the month ahead, it is easy to picture making room for it. Finding that room in the middle of an ordinary week can be harder.
Keep something to look forward to
A few ideas can give you somewhere to begin when a little time opens up.
Keep them where you will see them again. A short note on your phone, a scrap of paper near the kitchen. Put a familiar favourite beside something you would like to try. Leave the dates open.
Then choose one that feels possible this week.
You might have an afternoon when neither of you feels like getting much out, but you would like to do something together. Find a clear space and stand facing your child for Mirror Movement Game.
Let them lift an arm slowly while you copy. Watch their face as you try to keep up. After a little while, swap and give them a movement to follow.
Leave a pause between turns. Let them choose the next one, even if it is the same movement again. You can give your attention to the small thing they have decided to show you.
A few turns may be enough. You can finish there and keep the game in mind for another afternoon.
Make a little room beside you
On another day, the time you have together may be tucked into something that already needs doing.
If your child comes over while you are unpacking, make a little space beside you. For Grocery Sorter, hand them a light, unbreakable item and ask, “Where does this one live?”
Give them a moment to work it out. You can show them the fridge, counter and cupboard, or start with fridge and no fridge for a younger child. Stay alongside them and keep anything heavy, breakable or unsuitable in your own hands.
Follow their answer with a little conversation. Perhaps they want to know why something goes in the fridge. Perhaps they are more interested in choosing what comes out of the bag next.
The shopping is still getting put away. For a few items, there is a part of the job you are sharing.
Let them leave when they have had enough. You can finish the unpacking, and they can carry on with whatever has caught their attention. Some days, making room for them will feel manageable. Other days, you may want to get everything away yourself.
There is space for both kinds of day in the month.
Sit down when there is time for it
Perhaps the paper and crayons come out on a slower afternoon. Pull up a chair instead of setting everything out and stepping away.
Sit beside your child for a little Texture Rubbing Collection. You hold a scrap of paper steady over a woven placemat while they rub the side of an unwrapped crayon across it. As the pattern appears, pause and look together. Let them show you the bit that caught their eye.
Stay with that for a moment. They might want to try another colour or go over the same patch again. Follow what interests them before suggesting the next thing.
Keep the sheet if they want to return to it. Later in the month, you could bring it out and see whether they would like to add another rubbing. Or leave it as the piece you made that afternoon.
Let the month change
A list can start with a hopeful feeling. You picture a bit more time together and want to make it easier to find.
If it begins to feel like a record of everything you have not done, change it.
Cross out the idea that no longer appeals. Keep the one your child asks for again. Leave the new activity for another week if a familiar game is what you both feel like doing.
There can be pleasure in knowing how to begin, in remembering whose turn comes next. You can spend that afternoon enjoying something you already know.
And when a week slips past without trying anything from the list, look at what feels possible now. You can begin from here, without finding a place for everything you missed.
At the end of the month, carry an idea forward if you still want to try it. Let it go if you do not.
Choose one idea for this week. Something you would like to share. Leave enough room around it for the day, and for each other.