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I recently encountered the following paragraph:

I try hard to become incredibly selective about those
things I engage with, so I can be really present for the stuff
that I’m doing, and be really engaged with my kids in a meaningful way.

In this context, what do the phrases

things I engage with

and

to be engaged with one's kids in a meaningful way

mean?

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  • 2
    See 2.1 Meaning of Engage with
    – user6951
    Oct 17, 2014 at 8:55
  • @CarSmack It's kinda unclear. Could you give me some simple examples of usage of to engage with.
    – Denis Kulagin
    Oct 17, 2014 at 9:28

2 Answers 2

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See the definition for the intransitive verb here at 2.c:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engage?show=0&t=1413549624

To engage with means to "give your attention to {something|someone}".

To be really engaged with means to give something or someone your undivided attention.

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It just means that he is choosing not to focus or spend time on things that aren't that important to him. Since he's not focusing on those unimportant things, he can focus on his kids, converse with them, play with them, teach them things, etc.

For example, he could have chosen to just watch TV when he gets home from work. But instead, he chooses to keep the TV turned off and hang out with his kids.

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  • The thing is that each of your and @TRomano answer adds to each other. His is more technical, yours is more context-based. So I don't want to mark one of them as accepted => it would not be honest.
    – Denis Kulagin
    Nov 13, 2014 at 13:06
  • @DenisKulagin That can happen a lot. You don't have to accept one, that's your choice. But I'd recommended just choosing one, flip a coin if you need to, just so people know you've already received decent answer to your question.
    – CRABOLO
    Nov 13, 2014 at 13:08

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