One man's voice Thoughts, rants and commentary of a simple man

Spending some work time bonding

Today I had the awesome pleasure of spending a few hours working. I know, that doesn't sound right. The truth is I wasn't happy so much about the work but that company that I had with me. My oldest daughter, Sarah, who is in Junior High but seems to have the homework load of a college Senior, was with me.

We had planned this out for a while because she has struggled somewhat in getting her homework done on time. When I asked her why she was having a hard time she told me that she was having trouble staying focused on the work she was supposed to be doing. Like father, like daughter, I guess.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago I spent a few hours at a local coffee shop drinking coffee and coding. And I was able to accomplish great things that day. It was quiet, for the most part, peaceful and there were no interruptions. So I figured that if it was good for me that day then it would be good for both Sarah and I today.

We got up early, packed our backpacks and headed out the door for a nice brisk walk up the street to Mission Coffee. We got there, set up shop at the big table and got cracking. It was nice to be there with her, too. Even though we didn't talk much while we were there we did get a good bit of talking time in while walking there and walking home. So altogether we had about 40 minutes of daddy/daughter time this morning on our way to work. And work we did.

After only three hours or so we were ready to call it a day. Well, we were ready to come home. I still had a boat load of work to do but that was besides the point.

The nice thing was that in just a few hours this morning she was able to get a ton of homework done and I was able to get through quite a bit of stuff that needed my attention. I wasn't able to get it all done and I still needed to work for several hours after coming home and making a call to a client. But overall it was a nice experience for both Sarah and I. And it is one that I think I will be trying to do again until at least the end of this school year.