What, exactly, is quality time?

Quality Time- when my husband and his kids spend a day together, eating, talking, playing together.

Not Quality Time- when my husband was in poor health and the kids would spend a day at his apt., one kid in their own room on a computer, the other two kids playing Xbox nonstop and my husband asleep all day.

I tend to agree with the “urban dictionary” definition:
Often used by your girl/boy-friend as an excuse to see less of you…
“I think maybe you are coming over too often when I’m busy. We need to start thinking about spending more quality time together, where we can interact more and talk.”

It’s what people say when they’ve been so caught up with work and/or kids that normal things like watching tv or going out to eat become special.

I think quantity matters a whole hell of a lot more than people give credit to.

Quality time was probably a phrase developed to make working parents parents feel better about their time away from their kids I think, to relieve guilt. I am not making any personal judgement about working parents or time away, I am just commenting on what I hear from so many moms especially, how guilty they feel. It also was to encourage men to be more present for their children I think. To show up for football games and ballet receitals, etc.

Personally, I think young kids care more that they see their mommy and daddy daily, in the normal course of the day, then very special events once a week or once a month. Even as children become teen, they may not want to be bothered by their parents, but they want their parents to be there available.

I do think it is very special to have specific memories with a parent that was full of fun and happiness. A trip, time at the beach, watching a drive in movie, going to the pumpkin patch, but those things do not replace daily presence in the home or daily attention in my opinion.

When you do something you enjoy, usually with people you love, or get along with. Technically. I agree that it’s imprecise though, and subjective. I love @Blackberry‘s answer. :)

I don’t believe in quality time. I believe in quantity time.

If you have to ask, you’ll never know.

“Quality time” is what the 99 are trying to get, and the 1% has all the time.

($4,599,487)

LOL

Full attention and focus on your child and nothing else. You may be doing something together, but the most important thing is the child.

I have never really known. Since time, especially my life time, is finite and will disappear someday, I would say it better ALL be quality time.
Usually, when I have heard the phrase, it was in a context to re assure an absent parent that they could somehow make up for what the were keeping from their children the rest of the time. Which I guess would be valued as shoddy time.

I have always understood quality time to mean a conscious being together, doing more than simply being in the same house or room together, I don’t think it needs to be a case of either/or , I do think there is a need for both quality and quantity time together, especially where children and their parents are concerned but sometimes life intervenes, making it very difficult, but in all cases you can’t go too wrong if love is present.

To me, quality time means a time when you’ve had a couple of so called teachable moments with your child or moments where your relationship was re-affirmed or you were brought close together because you made memories together.

Quality time is when you spend time doing something you enjoy, and end up getting enjoyment out of it, regardless of the time it takes. It doesn’t have to be productive in terms of work, but productive in terms of emotional reward. Like when I spend time doing my hobbies or having a good time with my family.

It’s like a movie. You can have a long movie that bores the hell out of you, or a short movie that’s well-made and interesting. The short, interesting, and engaging movie is time well spent. The long, stupid movie is time not well spent. Quality is always meaningful.

I consider quality time with my partner as being together with no real distractions (ie: constant phone calls etc) and doing something we both enjoy doing together, even if it’s something simple like watching a DVD whilst eating a pizza! I love nothing more than lying in bed talking and laughing with my partner with our phones in a seperate room to us.

All of it, excluding time spent having a large shite….obviously.