If you were to ask me what I regret the most about living in modern times, I would answer unequivocally that it is without the shadow of a doubt, the race against time. Everyone is trying to save time. We ask our GPS for the fastest way to reach our destination, we prefer focused short professional training programs to longer deepened studies. Our cooking recipes are "fast and easy", not to mention the number of times we use words such as "quickly, we do not have time, we'll do that later, hurry up ...".

We run after time, but how do we use the time we have saved? We probably invest the quarter of an hour saved, to rush out again and accomplish something else. This life aboard a fast train has become the ill of the century.

While this method of accomplishing tasks speedily may benefit an entrepreneur, and yield greater profits, it is, on the other hand seriously harmful to family life.

Unfortunately, how often do we hear parents tell their child they do not have time to take them to the park or listen to their poem, claiming they need to attend an important meeting or that their work is so stressful, that as soon as they come home they need to tune off and quietly relax?

Too many children find solace in the comforting calm of a phone or IPad screen. The latter have unconditional and ample time to spend with the child, to play games, to listen to music, etc.

Some parents who are familiar with the problem, realize their mistake, but soon decide to hide behind a ready-made mantra, which is certainly, at least partly true: "I just do not have enough time".

Incidentally, the concept of "time" is combined in many ways. We may express having time, but we may also "take the time" or "make the time". The verb "to take," implies that we are short of a certain thing because it isn't available or out of stock. But we may decide to take it, nevertheless.  And the key to a happy family life lies in this approach: "take the time or make the time".

Take the time to listen to your wife, while she recounts the events that transpired in the course of her day. Take the time to rock the baby and put him to sleep. Take the time to listen and talk to your teenage son or daughter and answer their multiple questions. Take the time to visit an ageing parent who longs for connection. Take the time to have coffee with your sister. Take the time to laugh with your children. Simply, take the time to be spent in the company of the people you love.

I hear you arguing that a day has 24 hours only and that your job is not always a pleasure. In the absence of having the capacity to create time, perhaps we can reorganize our time differently?

Here are some ideas that come to mind.

If one of the parents often travels on business, perhaps it is possible to take one of the children with him on the trip. Thus, between two meetings or during long flights, father and son may share some exclusive quality time together.

Another idea is to devise a monthly schedule at the beginning of the month, planning family evenings, sports or artistic family activities, whether at home or at a public venue. Schedule outings for the entire family, or for mom and daughter, or for father and son, or for mom and dad. All these combinations are positive opportunities to take the time.

These pleasurable moments of family sharing can literally build your family and create happy memories for your children. Nobody remembers the brand of shoes a child wore in kindergarten, nor whether he ate potatoes three times a week or was served elaborate gourmet meals every evening. On the other hand, true memories, that bind us together many years later, reminiscences that make us cry with joy when we retell them, and bring back memories of our childhood, no matter how old we are, are precisely those exact moments when we chose to take the time. So, stop everything now! Do not keep putting this off until tomorrow and give your children wonderful memories by taking and making time for them.