Seventh year of parenting now and I still constantly complain how much less I get to do with having 2 boys in the house, and how all I long for is peace and quiet time. It’s true, they drive me crazy and take up a huge amount of mental capacity in my day-to-day. There is no mercy, there is no pause button.
But somehow when I’m a father I’m… better. I am constantly on guard, I am focused and disciplined in the things that I need to get done for the day (before I finally have my peace in the golden hour of 11pm-12am). I try to sleep earlier to get a good rest for the next day, I wake up the first in the morning to get everyone ready, I have my duties.
Today is the second day that Shanna took the kids to Taiwan for a 12-day holiday + learning adventure. I’m so less disciplined when living alone. I took on 5 personal challenges to keep me on my toes while their away, and take the opportunity to do things I normally don’t have the time and/or mental capacity to:
- Cold morning showers for 10 days
- Read 2 books
- 22:2 Intermittent fasting (OMAD) for 5 days
- Cycle for 90km
- Write something everyday
Fifth challenge is the reason for this post, which is great. I’ve never written anything here since the first post when I created this blog a year ago, and today is day 2 of writing. I’ll likely fail the third challenge though.
Fatherhood and being a husband drives me to do better, to provide more for the family. Who knows how I would’ve grown (or not grown) as a person if I’m still single now.
Shanna, Max, Leo - thank you.