Somebody has pressed the “repeat” button on my life at the moment. Each day is approximately the same as the last;
Get up
Shower, shave, get dressed
Help make breakfasts and lunches
Tidy kitchen up
Cycle to work
Write programming
Eat packed lunch
Write more programming
Cycle home
Tidy kitchen up
Tidy lounge up
Set table for dinner
Eat dinner
Wash up
Tidy kitchen up
Read bedtime stories with the kids
Watch garbage TV with the netbook on my lap until far too late
Go to bed
Read Kindle
Sleep
Every. Day well, except for weekends - where you can substitute the work bit with tidying various rooms up around the house, and/or taking the kids to the playpark, shoe shopping (holy shit do they ever go through shoes!), or to various friends birthday parties.
What am I saying here? If you are single, or you don’t have kids yet, you have no idea what being tired means, or having little or no time to do anything you might like to. The grass isn’t all green on this side of the fence.
I made a joke leaving work tonight that my salary should just be paid directly to my other half, with no involvement from me at all (we have a joint account anyway). I never see any of the money I earn, so why should I need to know anything about it? Several people laughed, but there was more truth to it than they knew. I suspect it’s the same story for most people with a young family - your bank account is a black hole that you just keep throwing everything into.
It could be argued that the children are the same - a kind of sink that takes everything you can give them, with no limit - only with the children they pay you back in all sorts of ways in a directly proportional relationship to your input.
Sometimes the effects of your efforts show up in little ways - using a knife and fork properly, or even sitting at the table for dinner. Sometimes it’s bigger things - like learning to ride a bike, or being able to read a difficult book. Sometimes it’s either yourself or your other half that you see in their reaction to a situation
And here I am, going around and back on myself with the content of this post. On repeat. Like I said. I didn’t meant to go off on one. I almost wrote a post about having nothing to say - and then all this crap came out.