There really is no ride more thrilling or greater then the roller coaster of life! The ups and downs never seem to let us down and just when we think we have mastered this ride we enter fatherhood and we reach a whole new level. This is the time we have to learn how to balance the things that we now have to deal with in life. This includes your job, your duties as a father, the household projects, and the ever growing activities the kids become a part of! It always seems there is never enough time to get it all donw but we dads find that way no matter the struggle or stress! The question is always how much is too much of one thing to take you away from everything else?
There is no real answer for this in all honesty as it is typically the circumstances of your own current situation that can dictate how much time is dedicated to one phase of your daily life then another. Financial issues or struggles will always push us into having to work more or feel inadequate if we do not provide what we feel is enough. As the slogan says we never want to miss a thing and I know I feel that way all the time and I feel I could always do more. The soccer games, the baseball games, the swim meets, the dance competitions are all events I want to be a part of.
I know I can list projects around the house I have started and not finished yet. Now am I procrastinator??? Absolutely but that is because sometimes you just want to be able to relax take a deep breath when you get a chance so again trying to balance all of this I can certainly feel the struggle. Currently have my basement floor ripped up to start laying down some nice new waterproof vinyl plank flooring, yet it is so easy for me push other stuff in front of it or make an excuse not to work on it even though it stresses me out that it is not done!! Sounds crazy doesn’t it? We can be very adept at putting the things off we are not thrilled about doing at times. In the end we know they must get done but it is up to us as dads to balance our lives to include projects and the day to day responsibilites to keep the house running.
The biggest issue with this for me is my tendency to forget about myself or include the things I enjoy in life as part of this balance. It becomes very easy to lose your own needs or your own joys as a part of the life balance. I used to be an avid golfer now I am lucky if I play once a year!! Clearly we do not want to put our needs ahead of those of our kids or family but it is important to not completely lose focus on such things as we all need to hold onto our identity as people and not just as a father. It would be foolish to say we can have everything equally balanced in life as for some work can dominate so much of your time. For others you could be you are a stay at home dad and those responsibilities seem to take all your time!! So that will always take more out of your time so it is not about the balance of making things equal but to be sure not to let one things or another dominate your life so much that everything else suffers.
I look forward to getting into all the things in life I enjoy and sharing them with you and how I try to keep them a part of my life balance. I would be failing in one duty as a husband if I did not add the time you and your spouse or significant other spend together as part of what we need to balance in life. A big part of being a dad is our relationship with our significant others our wives and it is important to be able to maintain that. The occasional date night is imperative!! We need those times in our life as well, as these are our partners in raising these kids and time spent with them communicating about things going on is important. This helps us gain more perspective on things as I know for me being able to see things from her point of view can be a useful tool as a dad.
With just these few points it is easy to see how our lives can be thrown into chaos. Imagine all the smaller things now and yup the balancing act can become quite the circus act with plenty of juggling!! This balancing will always be fluid as well ever changing so it is not something we will ever master but the hope would be we are prepared to be able to handle what comes along. The more aware we are of the things in life the better equipped we can be to handle the tons of stress and anxiety that comes with us along this roller coaster ride of life.