Family Moments is about the wonderful experience of connecting as a family.

In this series, we encourage parents to take a look at those truly special family moments. Memories that evoke a feeling of pure joy because they represent quality time with the people we love the most. The realities of modern day life can make these family moments feel out of our reach a lot of the time. Through this series, parents take a look at the obstacles that can get in the way of these happy family experiences with a view to making some changes so that life can involve more of them. Today we’re speaking to Laura Doyle. 

A little bit about me and my family.

My name is Laura, I’m a mum of four beautiful little ones from Dublin. I have a fantastic husband Neil and our children are Kyle 10, Noa Belle 5, Briar Rose 3 and Milla almost 2.

Our favourite way to spend time together is…

I love nothing more than just being with them. Whatever that is and I know Neil feels the same. We love to just sit on the floor and play, read books or even sit on the couch while they put on a show for us either individually or all together. I love nothing more than smelling their hair and hearing them laugh. Whatever that entails.

We love to spend time outdoors as a family too. The kids love the playground and no matter how stressful our day has been or how challenging the kids are that day, the fresh air and getting out never fails to set things right. 

Our most cherished family moment is...

For us, it is hard to pick one specific moment for us all. As a family of six, our cherished moment is a collection of lots of cherished moments.

For me, it was watching our son in his first ad and the pride I felt - I thought I would actually burst. As difficult as it can be some days, I feel incredibly lucky to call this my family. 

For Neil, it was the first time seeing his son score a goal. He was so emotional. 

Watching the girls play together or Kyle bring Noa out to play with him. Seeing how they care for each other. 

Watching them put on a show for us, singing and laughing. 

Eating pizza together at the weekend and hearing all their little stories. 

Looking at us all when we are together and feeling so much love and happiness in our hearts and knowing for sure, we are home.

The thing that gets in the way of us spending time together is...

Both myself and Neil work. Neil works your standard 9-5 Monday-Friday job. I, on the other hand, am a freelance writer and blogger and my hours can be a little unpredictable.

I get a lot of my writing work done when Neil is home, so it does cut into our quality time together. But we make it work. It means that when we are all spending family time together, we try to be 100% present in that moment, both with each other and with the kids.

Our pledge as a family:

For us, as working parents of four, we really need to plan our weekends.  It sounds a little pedantic I know but it means we know exactly what we are doing and we can really utilise the time we have together. 

Another change we have made is to put our phones away when we are having quality time as a family. It can be so easily distracting to check your phone or to capture images of your quality time together but how special it is just to be in that moment with your little ones. 

To maximize your quality family time, take our Family Moments Challenge.

We would like to thank Laura for sharing her special family moments with us. To read more stories just like Laura's, click here.