There's an old Irish expression which says, "When God made time, He made plenty of it"

These days, you wonder.

I saw a man running an errand to the dry cleaner after work. His three children were in the back seat - two in car seats, one not. They were eating macaroni and cheese off of paper plates. I thought of my own children laughing and fighting and screaming around the dinner table and praying their Grace prayer.

We have the luxury of time (on most nights) to savor our food (as much as one can savor anything with four small children) and to share our lives.

Time - the greatest gift I can give my children.

A nearby suburb proudly announced the opening of a child care center near the commuter train. With a dry cleaner next door and a cash machine nearby, parents can drop off their kids with their laundry, hit the cash machine and jump on the train all in one stop.

Why does this depress me so?

Do we value our time as much as we value our children? "Don't waste my precious time," we tell our distractors.

Are our children trying to tell us, "Don't waste our precious childhood?"

Sometimes there is almost an urgency to my mothering. We simply must have certain experiences or do certain activities or I won't be doing the mother thing right. I push our schedules and overfill our days when all they really want is my time.

I compulsively planned my schedule my last year of practicing law in order to maximize my time at home. I had rules. No appointments after 3 PM. No court on Friday, etc. But I still felt driven, fragmented, unable to relax and enjoy either role.

And so I can home to raise my children.

It is true that when God made time we made plenty of it. We just need the wisdom to know how to use it wisely