Each weekday morning, Lauren Puglia plays "pet shop" with her lively 5-year-old twins. They giggle under the covers as she "buys" the two of them from the shop, then she firmly tells them that in her house even unicorns and spotted tigers wear clothes and brush their teeth. This little ritual only takes a moment, but it's a special shared time. "The kids have a blast," says Lauren, a Boston-based lawyer. And at the same time, they're happily getting ready for kindergarten as she checks off part of her morning agenda. "We're constantly on the go, so I'm always looking for ways to spend time with them."

Although moms are working more than ever, recent research from the University of Maryland shows that we're actually spending more time with our kids—whether we work or not—than moms did 35 years ago. No way, you say? In fact, we're good at rallying family togetherness, even if it comes in bite-size pieces and we sneak it in here and there. Playing peek-a-boo while diapering your baby or folding the laundry. A quick hot-cocoa stop on the way to school. A hug and a giggle after a serious talk. These booster shots of bonding may sometimes be unplanned or unexpected. Yet we absolutely can build rituals, strengthen our relationships with our kids and encourage family unity—even in ten-minute doses, says Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, PhD, director of research at UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families.

Chances are you're already sneaking in wonderful times with your children between work, grocery shopping and PTA meetings. But in case you find yourself low on memorable moments, here are some special ways to grab potent doses of togetherness during your busy day.Traditions With a TwistEvery family has its running jokes, its comforting idiosyncrasies. Perhaps you make pancakes for dinner when your husband's away or sing a silly wake-up song to rustle your kids out of bed. Jessica Strauss, a doula in Philadelphia, instituted "special time" with her 3-year-old son, Aidan, by setting a timer for 15 to 30 minutes of pure play. She lets him do (almost) anything he wants—like playing the "Aidan is a dragon" game. When the timer goes off, he's happy to let his mother move on to her to-do list.

Rituals like this not only give children a sense of stability and predictability, they are the enduring memories of childhood, says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York City. Her research shows that kids actually take greater joy in recalling simple family traditions than big stuff like trips to Disneyland. Now that Galinsky's kids are older, they can look back fondly on the time they spent together in the kitchen making funny-shaped biscuits on weekends. So try importing a car game like I Spy to the dinner table, or turn walks into nature hunts as you collect twigs and seeds for indoor craft materials—and giggle along the way.Telling Tales out of SchoolYou don't need to be a Homeric bard to sneak in little stories that will captivate and inspire your children. As you arrange a bouquet, share the anecdote about that vase your mom brought back from Japan. While you decorate your holiday tree, give the history of your most cherished ornaments. Recounting family adventures—even daily ups and downs—grounds kids and promotes good communication. When Nancy McManus's daughter, Lauren, got blamed by her fifth-grade teacher for a friend's mistake, Nancy, a Dayton, OH, hairstylist, seized the teachable moment to relate how she had once taken the rap for talking in class even though others were also chattering away. Her "I've been there, too" tale helped her daughter see that sometimes life isn't fair, but we learn from it.

Is it worth using precious time with the kids to tell stories? You bet. A three-year study from Emory University in Atlanta reveals that preteens whose parents share family anecdotes have higher self-esteem and better peer relations later on. "The kids see that families are characterized by ups and downs, good and bad, and that the family survives these things," says Marshall Duke, PhD, who co-conducted the study. So when your child brings home his class photos, share your school days. Or recall your grandparents' farmhouse as you prowl an antiques shop. You'll be surprised at how much kids love history—when it's theirs. Lemons to LemonadeDon't look now, but you can make even trying times amusing. Chores can offer togetherness: Play "beat the clock" while cleaning up the family room or "try to make me laugh" while waiting in a long checkout line. When the electricity goes out, tell a ghost story. During an ongoing study of 32 diverse Los Angeles families, Dr. Kremer-Sadlik and other researchers at UCLA saw over and over how parents squeezed a giggle, and maybe a life lesson, out of a dreary hour. One mom turned a visit to a farmers' market into a taste-test game, and another helped her son explore his toy airplane while waiting at a car wash.

You can even spin confrontations with your teen or toddler into moments of closeness. Alyzandra Brioso, a single mom of six kids ages 3 to 16, recalls how a fight with her oldest child about rooming with a sister ended with both mom and daughter angrily moving each other's clothing into the living room—then collapsing onto a sofa in laughter. As they picked up the mess, "we had a real bonding time," says Alyzandra, a Cambridge, MA, health system administrative assistant.The Genius in Doing NothingDaydreaming and wasting time are rare commodities. We find ourselves slipping a cell phone call or an email into many unoccupied moments. Likewise, children's free time is rapidly disappearing. But if we slow down just a bit, we might even let our kids lead us into play, as it's their nature to do.

Try sneaking in a "what if." Ask your child, "What if you were a genie? What wishes would you grant me?" Or, "Where would you fly first if you woke up with wings?" Or stop when you see your child making art, grab a paintbrush and create side by side. You could duck out the back door for a bit and make your own family portrait in snow. We just have to be open to these moments and let them take us away, as Chris Neal did one day with her 5-year-old son, Sammy, in their Gaithersburg, MD, backyard. Chris, a campaign director for the nonprofit Ad Council, took a little time to cuddle with her son in their hammock, looking for birds in the trees and shapes in the clouds as his 2-year-old twin sisters napped. "It was completely unplanned," she says. "I just stole the moment."