I feel like I don't get enough time with Simon. His bed time is still a little on the early side, so I typically only get about two hours with him during the week. Not that I want to hold his hand and do everything with him, but I like just having the chance to be around him. I feel like I'm missing big chunks of his life.
Back in the day, when people were annoyingly telling me, in an unsolicited way, how everything changes when you have a kid, they weren't getting it right. The difference is subtle, but important. It's not strictly an issue of change for me. As has always been the case with relationships, having a child is additive in nature. I'm still everything I was before, but now I'm this too.
I guess you could argue that priorities do change, and Simon and Diana trump pretty much everything else, including work and me time. That's OK, most of the time. However, it also feels a little like coaching, where you're expected to achieve results for everyone from yourself, to the kids and to the parents. The life version of that is family, work, and hopefully, yourself. It just feels from time to time that no one is looking out for you. That's not really the case, mind you, it just feels that way.
My struggle lately is to make sure that I'm getting time with Simon, getting time with Diana, all while not forgetting to devote time to myself. It's a time management issue, and anyone who suggests otherwise is full of shit. It would be nice if Diana and I could swap jobs for a week at a time, but things obviously don't work that way.
I think things will get a little easier as Simon gets older. I mean, he'll have entirely new sets of problems with each stage of his childhood, but my evenings with him won't be dominated with feeding and bathing him, and he won't be in bed by 7.
Today we took a nice little walk around the house after dinner, which was a lot of fun. I love seeing how he takes in the world.
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