[mootothemax]

>It was rare for him to miss dinner with us, and he attended easily more than 60% of our extracurricular events... I think this form of scheduling is effective.

Thanks for posting this. As a parent of small kids, this is pretty much well what I'm doing right now, and it's lovely and reassuring to see that your father's scheduling worked out for you.

Before kids, being able to define my own working hours was awesome; now with small children, it's working out really well, and "being there" is a noticeable quality-of-life thing, especially when you're not having to ask for a boss' permission to do so!