@Leanne – Since I don’t find time-tracking that difficult at all, I don’t feel any sense of “tightening” on it. I mean, it literally takes me 2-3 minutes a day. Just like brushing my teeth! And I haven’t felt myself feeling all that tightened about that.

Even the running doesn’t feel that constricting. Since it’s only a mile, which doesn’t take much time at all. Of course, there’s a bit more equipment and bother involved in running, but it’s not that big a deal. Yes, I do it everyday, but I really WANT to do it every day.

@Kathy – time tracking is a great tool! Glad you agree 🙂 And yes, if one does very flexible work, it can be very easy to let it bleed into all available time. I see this during weekday evenings. I could spend another half hour answering email…or not. So what do I choose to do?

@Robin – you do have a spread! while we have less of a spread (10 to 3) we’ve gone with the philosophy that care for the littlest is often a separate question from the oldest. So we’ll hire a sitter on weekends to stay with the little guy while we go do big kid activities, or take the big kids out for dinner. We’ve taken trips with the big kids without the little guy too. It’s great when they can all do stuff together, but often “all together” just means the littlest consumes all available attention. So the childcare is a key part of being able to enjoy my older children. (And I assume the 3-year-old is probably happier NOT being in the car all the time too!)

Although I haven’t listened to any of the podcasts yet, I hope to take time soon to do so.
I agree that things are different depending on children’s ages. I’d love more information about dealing with a wide range of ages. I’m not yet at the stage to deal with college admissions, but with 13 years between my oldest and my youngest, I’m juggling working full-time and then shuttling teens and preteens to their activities, playing games (board games and others) with my younger school children, helping with schoolwork, AND breastfeeding a baby (who is wide awake at this hour, eager to play, as I type; she was trying to emulate my typing on the keyboard) while trying to carve out some time for myself.

@June – ok, working on it! But yes, it is hard to get topics that appeal to everyone – there is such a range of parenting subjects. And things are so different when you’re talking getting teens to sports and doing their home work and college admissions vs. breastfeeding a baby.

Yes, please!! I’d love a post on winter activities with kids, with a particular focus on the older kids. I’ve enjoyed some of the more recent episodes of the podcast because they are also applicable to parents with non-babies. My 2 kids are the same ages are your older 2 kids, so we have lot of things that are the subject of work-family content already set. Plus, the baby/balancing stuff doesn’t hold much interest anymore.

@Lori – thanks! I’m so glad you found me through the Elevate HR conference. Tracking time can be tough but it’s so worthwhile – you see where the time really goes, and see where the space might be.

I would love a post on winter kid ideas. I don’t detest board games, but 6 hours in a weekend is a bit much. What wasn’t captured in my log (because the weekend continued into Monday was a trip the Museum of Natural History in NYC. We do try to plan at least 1 outing per weekend in the winter to stave off cabin fever.