Reader points out that work/life balance requires time and talking

A few months ago, I asked readers to give me specific examples of how they have built better work/life balance.

I've written several other columns on related topics since then, and I've included some of your ideas. But I never found a spot to include advice from one reader whose response was a bit longer than usual.

Today, I want to share that reader's story.

Her name is Kim. She wrote in her email that her husband has worked in the heating and air conditioning business over the years, and she ran a daycare out of their home while their six children were younger. Now she works from home, using her certificate in medical transcription.

Kim and her husband have tried hard to provide for their family's needs. However, she wrote, that has meant her husband has had to work long hours.

"There were days when the kids did not see him at all, because he left early and came home after they were in bed," Kim wrote. "Luckily, most days he at least came home for meals. Over the years his work has evolved to the point that now he works full time in the engineering department of the local hospital and still has his own business in heating and air conditioning on the side.

"After more than 10 years of having both jobs, we have looked at our lives and decided that we don't have a lot to show for it, but he feels that he has missed a lot of time with the kids. So he has gradually slowed way down on his own business and spends a normal 40-hour week at work at the hospital. We feel that it has been worth the drop in income."

Despite the years of working long hours, though, Kim's husband has always made time for his family. How does he do it?

"Mostly, he takes the kids and leaves home," she wrote. "At home the phone is always ringing. Friends, neighbors and former customers know he can fix almost anything ... In order to have really good quality time with the kids, he takes them away from home to play."

That means everything from attending live performances of high school plays and community concerts to taking the children camping and snowmobiling.

"When it comes to watching the kids in their activities, he gets to as many as he possibly can," she wrote. "He has been to countless soccer games, dance competitions, cross country matches, scholarship pageants, triathlons, T-ball games, etc. He may run in at the last possible second and leave right at the last buzzer, but he has been there for most of them. …