By Leslie Lindsay

She told me that she wanted some special time with “just mommy.”   I told her it would have to wait.  (Ugh–what a mean mommy, I know).  While it’s so important to have that 1:1 bonding time with each individual child, it’s also down-right hard to fit it all in 24 hours.

I know, I know…24 hours sure sounds like a lot of time, but factor in everything else everyone else needs all day long, and well, it’s embarrassingly true that it spending good, quality time with each child is nearly impossible.

So, today–in just a matter of minutes–I will be having my special lunch date with my special first grader, my first-born.  She wants McDonalds for lunch and I am happy to oblige.   (Not really–I don’t love the fast-food mega-giant, nor do I love the artery-clogging foods, but well…whatever).  So, this morning as I dashed off the note to her teacher indicating that I will pick my darling daughter up just around lunch time to return her to school by the time lessons begin again at 12:30, I reminded Kate, “Hey, can’t wait for our lunch date, kiddo!”

“It’s not a date, mom.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.  Dates are for boys and girls who are in love.”

“Okay!  But we can have a date, just the two of us because I love you, right?”

“Well, you do love me, but I am not a boy.”

So, I could have continued to push….if you were a boy (my son) and we were having lunch together and I love you…is it a date?  But I didn’t.  Instead, “Great.  Looking forward to lunch with my first baby.”

And so, I am looking forward to it.  We’ll sit in the car (because it’s snowing cats and dogs and the drive-thru just sounds easier) and chat and chow down on some fatting food and perhaps we’ll have  few minutes to work on that cool window mosaic sticky thing she has been trying to finish in earnest.

Well, gotta run!  Got a lunch date in minutes. 

And that is what is in my brain today, Thursday January 12th 2012