Catt Sadler on Spending Quality Time With Your Kids

There's no real formula for balancing work and motherhood in my opinion. I've spent more than a decade working long, crazy hours to build my career and am finally in a very manageable place. My shooting schedule at E! allows me to take my kids to school and have plenty of time for home-cooked meals at night. I pinch myself regularly at how lucky we all are. I have a job that I truly love and a family that reminds me of what really matters. I may not be the mom who's up late baking all night, and I may not get to attend every school field trip, but I make it a point to have genuine quality time with my boys when I'm not at work.

Here are my top five favorite ways to bond with my boys:

• See movies together! Because I work at E! and often interview actors and directors, the boys and I sometimes get to screen movies early. This is a major perk of my job and the kiddos benefit from it quite a bit. But, whether it's a new movie in theaters or a good find on Netflix, we'll all watch a movie together at least once a week. I always love to chit chat with my boys after we watch a film. I ask them, "What was your favorite part? Why did so and so do what they did? What character did you relate to most?" And if it's a movie franchise they're really into, sometimes I'm the one asking the questions!
• Plan a family trip! The boys have their passports and collect things from around the world. So far we've been to Paris, London and Cabo San Lucas. We love learning about the real world around us. And the traveling brings us much closer together as a family.
• Listen to music! We love to listen to music in the car together. I make sure to incorporate some oldies but goodies into the boys' pop music picks. They love Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park and Adele, but I make sure to sprinkle in Michael Jackson, Al Green, Elvis and some classics when we're cruising around town. They ask a lot of questions about these artists and I usually have a pretty decent backstory to share.
• Exercise together! Hiking and escaping into nature is a fantastic way to bond. You can really talk to one another and catch up when there's nothing but each other in a tranquil environment. My son Austin likes to jog as well, so sometimes we have our best talks when we're on a jog together.
• Read with your kids! It's so easy to get out of this habit, but I try to slow down enough to be still and read with the kids. My mom always made time to read with me. She would read aloud and so would I. I'm certain all of my reading as a child contributed to my job today now as a "talker" on TV!