I work from home. I see my kids all the time. We eat breakfast and dinner together, I drive them to and from school every day and am always within ear shot. You may think that this is an ideal setup but what most people don’t realize is that when you work from home you are basically always at work.
I get calls at 11PM, I get calls on weekends, and Friday at 5PM is when my biggest work loads come in. I understand that it is normal for a typical work week to end with getting certain tasks “out the door” which in many cases translates to “in my door”. I am definitely NOT complaining, getting work is ALWAYS a good thing however the fact that it comes in on Friday can be frustrating, especially if it is a lot and I am already in the middle of a big project, and anyone who works in this business knows that EVERY job is a rush job… there goes another weekend.
This can put a strain on my kids because even though I am here I can’t always spend time with them. They do not yet understand the relationship of me at the computer and money for food, clothes, mortgage, toys, etc… and there are times when the disappointed looks I get dig very deep. For this reason, spending time with my kids has to be prioritized and a consistency has to be maintained.
My latest secret weapon (aside from leaving the house and turning the phone off) has been a remote control car. My son and I build it, maintain it, run it in parks and in deserted parking lots and all the while spending time together having a blast. Plus he learns a few things about electronics, aerodynamics, and the basics of having respect for and taking care of his possessions. Sure, we do other stuff like catch and all but the car is awesome.
Last year I bought my son a bunch of RC toys, an RC helicopter and an RC car. I soon discovered that not all remote control toys are created equal. The helicopter was poor quality, very hard to control and flew twice before hitting a wall and breaking into several pieces. Note: don’t use cheap flying toys inside your home! On the other side of the coin, the car was fantastic. I spent a considerable amount more and bought a true quality product. This resulted in hours of entertainment and some excellent father son bonding.
People are always looking for things to do together and keep them occupied during their free time. R/C or remote control toys are very cool and are a pastime of men, women and little children alike. Unlike in the past when RCs only meant remote control toy cars played by little boys and could only run forward and backwards, the modern RCs are a product of innovations in RC technology. What you can find in RC stores and hobby shops anywhere include scale model RC tanks, upgradable RC cars, gyro RC helicopters and scale model replicas of boats that could sail at unbelievable speeds. You can also shop for all these items online. Try the Xenon Project where you will find a long list of high quality RC Helicopters, RC Tanks and RC Boats. Your kids will love them and you will too.