Cherish the Moments

How many time have you listened to only parts of your child's conversation?  How many times a day do you find yourself telling your child 'hold on for one sec' or 'I'll be there in a minute'?  More often than you'd like I'm sure, especially with the numerous distractions at our fingertips (laptops, smartphones, etc.).  I know I am guilty.  The question I constantly ask myself is how can I change it?  I think we have to find our own way around this.  We have to find what works for us and our child.  I know that I now try to catch myself when those words begin to form in my mouth.  What I've realized is that my daughter knows when she doesn't have my full attention.  She knows when I am not truly listening to her.  I don't ever want her to feel that my laptop is more important than her, or that I'd rather be doing dishes then taking a minute to go look at what she wants to share with me.  But, this is exactly what I have done many many times.  I know its not easy because we are always multi-tasking and thinking about things we have to do tomorrow when we haven't even gotten through today.  I know this is one of my faults. And, there are some emails I have to respond to right away, I do have to do the dishes, the laundry, and the list goes on for all of us.  But, 99.9% of the time these things can wait for a few minutes.  The email, dishes, and laundry will still be there when we return, but the difference will be that we will have made our child feel important!  We'll have shown them they come first.  And what could be more important than that?  NOTHING.