Schedule one-on-one days with each child to provide focused attention

Before she entered the financial services profession, Keunhwa Lori Moon worked 60 to 80 hours a week and frequently traveled out of town. It didn’t provide the flexibility that the two-year MDRT member from Fairfax, Virginia, wanted — and now has — to spend with her family.

While her new schedule often means working on Sundays to connect with clients at their convenience, Moon does not work on Saturdays and, as the mother of three kids, has a date with each of them one Saturday per month. Her oldest daughter likes the Cheesecake Factory; her other daughter likes Panera and doesn’t let her go there with anyone else; her son enjoys going to Barnes and Noble to read.

“I felt bad because I felt like I wasn’t doing anything with him and I wasn’t really communicating with him at the store,” Moon said. “But he said, ‘Mommy, I’m having the best time of my life.’”

Both present and available

The individual-dates concept stems from Moon once reading that “the worst parent is the one who’s visible but not available.” That’s why, when she works at home, she closes the door to distinguish the time she’s working; if she’s not working, she makes sure the kids know she is in the room and there for them. The one-on-one date provide individual attention while also allowing one Saturday each month for Moon to take a break. These priorities provide not only a balance between work and her personal life, but a balance within the personal life as well.

The dates don’t just make the kids feel special, either. Moon sometimes takes them to a store and gives them $10, saying they can do anything they want with it, including keeping what’s left over. “I’m teaching them about money and saving,” she said, “and they also just feel special being out with me, having my attention 100 percent.”

For more Whole Person ideas

•        “Well mind and body” (pdf)
•        “Don’t allow negativity” (video)
•        “Whole Person balance quiz” (pdf)

Written by Matt Pais, MDRT Content Specialist