“Daddy, will you play with me?”

Some day, I know, I will regret not taking as many opportunities as I could have to play with my children. It’s certainly a regret most parents have, I would say, no matter how much time they actually spent with their children.

This weekend, with the rainy weather keeping us inside, we were together most of the time. But I spent a large amount of time grading papers. Late Saturday morning, I sat with E on my knees, grading papers online as he played with cars and shoved various items in my way. Saturday afternoon, I headed to the basement for more grading and fewer distractions. And Sunday morning, it was a mix of grading papers and hanging out with the kids — mostly the former. Sixty papers graded in one weekend. And the price?

I justify it with the realization that it’s just the unit my English I Honors kids are working on now. Lots of writing — lots of it — to form the foundation for the entire year. Once we finish this unit (about a week to go), everything will calm down. But there will always be something I could do for school, so perhaps I’m just fooling myself.

But I smart enough to realize that when E asks me point blank, “Daddy, will you play with me?” that I’d be a fool not to. (I’m a fool occasionally.)

So we built a few things with blocks and knocked them down again. Which was more fun? The knocking down, of course.