How much one on one time do you spend with your los?

[dmills]

How much one on one time ( actually sitting and playing, crafting, reading, etc..,) do you spend with your los?  And how old are they?  Just curious.  I teach and when I get home I try to interact with the kids, but the evening time flies by.

[speechie]

I spend probably an hour total reading to Nick. We play about 4 hours altogether in addition to that. The rest of his waking time is eating, bath, household chores/errands.

[linfran]

Not enough 

DS is at a childminder's five days a week so I try and do stuff with him in the evenings and he helps me at weekends (loves finding stuff at the supermarket!).  He will be three in February.

Until 2 weeks ago he was at a daycare where he got very little 1:1 time.  His new childminder is lovely (he told me yesterday he loves her!) and because her four other charges are part time he gets at least three afternoons a week with her by himself - I've noticed an improvement already.

[dmills]

I was just curious.  I teach so I am gone all day.  I was just wondering how much time I should be actually engaged in an activity with them and how much time I should force them to play on their own.  Thanks!

[gpmom]

DD is 15 months and I also work 4 days a week.  She gets quite a bit of 1-1 time actually.  When I get home from work I am all hers at least .5 hr if not more.  Then we do supper and playing after, plus bath etc until she is in bed.
I should mention she also gets p/u from day care by her dad and then "hang out" for 2 hours b4 I get home.
geeze, i hope I can keep it up once she is older.

[newmom11]

my lo is 16 months and i'm on the floor with him most of the day.  if i have to get chores done, then he tags along behind me and usually helps.  he'll put clothes in the dryer for me, put spoons away from the dishwasher.  he loves to be involved in what i'm doing so i make it a game for him.  i struggle with what to do with him when i'm on the floor b/c at his age, it's all parallel play.  so i can sit beside him and do what he is doing or show him something, but it's not true interactive play.  i'm curious what you do with your lo's when you spend time with them.  especially since their attention span is so short and they lose interest in any given activity after a few minutes. 

[lilmonkey]

I think that it is about 3-4 hrs a day.  The only time where I concentrate on just them is after dinner and we play till bedtime which is about 1.5-2hrs.  All the other times are us just doing things together whenever he wants to.  Like newmom11, ds is very good at just playing by himself while I'm in the same room.  Sometimes he would bring a book to me to read and we would do that.  Or we just have a race around the kitchen and play hide and seek. 

I remembered when I was working (dd was 14-26 mos at the time), I would spend about 1.5hrs with her one on one.  As soon as she wakes, we get her ready for drop off at my mom's (7 am) and I don't see her till (5:30pm).  Between the 30 min car ride and until bedtime 7pm I have dd to myself.  I don't do any cleaning or cooking (dinner was usually prepared the night before or my mom would make it for us).  As soon as we get home, dd has dinner and we play till bedtime.  It wasn't easy  as I was tired but it was managable. 

I didn't mind spending all my time with dd as I think that she has enough independent play at my mom's.  Although my mom is really AP-inclined.  I should mention that dd is very independent despite being spoiled with love & attention from my parents and her cousin.