2Old2Parent...

My wife and I never said "never", but we made it clear to anyone that would listen that we had no plans for kids... we had cats (up to 5... not by my choice!) and that was our "family".  Stayed that way for 10 years, actually.  Until it hit us both like a ton of bricks.  So I started a family @ age 38+, wife was 34+.  Yeah its kinda late, but the time was right for us.  So in 2003 we had Charlotte.  Then in 2006, we had Holly (site not quite as up to-date).  Starting later has some advantages, at least as we see it.  We saw so many of our peers having children right out of the gate, yet still clinging to their no-kid lifestyles.  Dragging babies to baseball games in sweltering summer heat... to parties where alcohol flowed freely... etc.  My wife & I were always flabbergasted... why'd they have kids if they didn't want to invest the time & energy?  We pretty much got all of that "living" out of our systems, so when our time came we were ready.  My wife is a stay-at-home mom and loves it.  So do our girls.  Having gone far enough along in my career, we can make it on one salary.  Had we done things "normally", our children would have spent more time at daycare than at home.  Now please don't think I'm going all high & mighty, I'm not.  It's just that a actually feel bad for parents of daycare kids because I honestly think that they're probably missing out on some wonderful time with their kids.  But I see a lot of my friends where both work and the kids go to daycare not because that's the only way they can make ends meet...  those ends would be met if they had a little less "stuff" they had to work to pay for. 

I used to be heavily involved in model airplanes.  Not quite as expensive as a golf habit but still pretty expensive toys.  I actually sold most of my gear since I knew I wouldn't be going out to the field for a few years.  My weekends are filled with other activities now.  In my opinion, it's a small sacrifice for a huge return on investment - nothing can replace the time spent being heavily involved in your children's formative years.  That's why I've been able to slowly get back into gaming.  Now that the girls are a little older, I'm not so tired in the evenings and can have a few hours to relax.

It's also remarkable how quickly one becomes like their own parents, too!  We've gotten good at changing TV channels quickly whenever ads for shows like '24' come on... I'd rather not explain gunfire to a 4 year old.  Even stuff that should be tame are viewed a lot differently.  My wife got me Guitar Hero III for Christmas (PS2).  My girls have enjoyed watching my play I, II, and 80s (Charlotte's good with the whammy).  But when she saw GHIII, she started asking a lot of questions... what are those girls doing? why do they have horns?  is that a monster?  why is he hammering?  And I immediately looked at the game in a new light.  Why the "strippers in hell" motif?  I mean, the venue backdrops in the other games had some "monsters", but my daughter never questioned those.  She thought those were "cool".  But GHIII went just a bit farther.  Now I don't play that one when the girls are up (even though my favorite song is "Cliffs of Dover"... why is that song in the section with Iron Maiden and Slayer?!?!?). 

Rick