Quantity time comes in many forms. I read the Bruni article, and I have a family that has also (alas until this summer) managed to juggle our schedules to get three generations together for a full week every summer, arguments and reconciliation and all. But…that’s extended family. And he’s talking about one week in the summer–that’s not really a lot of quantity when you get down to it.
When it comes to my own kids, my availability to them leads to quantity time. Okay, I don’t answer their messages when I’m actually teaching a class, but otherwise, they know I’ll always respond to them right away or close to right away when they want me. So quantity time in my book–with the help of new-fangled communication–is just being out there in the ether. It has not been my experience that you have to be physically present to be present. I think of quality time more as “We are going to be together, dang it, right now, whether you like it or not, with my full attention on you whether you want it or not” and when did that ever work for anyone? 