I started my company the year my son was born, 21 years ago. It was a part-time/side hustle those first few years. So, the windows of time to work at doing what I loved (creating the digital versions of paper magazine dreams: my early websites) were snatched on my days off from the full-time job and during my son’s nap time. A two-hour nap was like a whole day to me. Snooze cruises on Sunday nights, gave me a good four or five-hour chunk of time when the baby and husband were asleep and I could concentrate on learning the craft of coding. One day (five years later), I had since quit the full-time un-fulfilling job to go full-time with my fulfilling business and I was sitting at my desk, happily coding a website, feeling like a magician with the code and the browser, but still a bit stressed that the project wasn’t done yet and the deadline was looming. I distinctly remember my then-five-year old boy’s smiling face at the door, saying “C’mon, mom. Dad and I are outside playing.” “Okay, honey, I’ll be there soon,” I told him, then I went back to my work and he went back outside to play. More time passed, maybe 10 minutes, when Evan came back inside and walked up to me at my desk and patiently said: “C’mon, mom… come outside and play.” He was smiling so broadly and in his eyes I could see that he knew I would eventually join them but in this moment, he wanted that to happen now. Maybe he was feeling that I was choosing my work over my boy. He wanted to gently escort me by my hand, away from this desk and just go play so he could be completely happy, playing with both his hard-working parents at the same time. I could see it in his twinkling, happy eyes so I got up and, together, we went outside. If only I known then how rare those moments would eventually be, I would have got up sooner to go play with him and his dad and I would have put away my work more often, in favor of time spent with my young son. Five years later, his dad and I grew apart and divorced. My son started to grow up way too soon and before I knew it he was entering his teens. By then, he was wired to become independent. That’s how teenagers are, especially the boys, apparently, so he really didn’t care to spend time with mom all that much. Ironically, by then I finally had more time because I’d gotten past the early stages of growing a company and had a talented team by then but it was too late. So, when I see parents with young kids, especially boys, I feel compelled to tell them: cherish them now and in every moment because time really does fly. It doesn’t wait. Before you know it, they’re 15 or 21 years old and it’s time for them to begin seeking out their place in the world and in themselves. No time to spend with mom and dad. So, now it’s me who knocks at his door and beckons him to come play outside and leave that computer alone for a while. C’mon outside and play, son. Sometimes he does and I’m grateful for those times. I’m grateful for all those times.