Gaming On The Dad Side

Fatherhood is exhausting.

I thought having little kids was tiring, having to feed, bathe, clean, and basically give them so much attention. "Just wait until they are older," I told myself, "when they can entertain themselves, wash themselves, do chores.... then I will be relaxed."

And part of that is true. The kids are more self reliant. They bathe themselves, have chores to help around the house, can read or play together... overall it was what I expected. But what I did not expect was the new demands. Dealing with homework, getting kids to their extra curricular activities all over town, ensuring homework/projects are done, breaking up disagreements (no one fights like siblings do). And through it all, making sure everyone still gets the attention from me and my wife they need to be emotionally fulfilled. Times three.

One twin is a competitive dancer. He is in dance class for 3 hours Tuesday night, 2 hours Wednesday night, and another 75 minutes on Saturday afternoons. His twin brother is learning guitar and does martial arts two times a week, along with doing scouts which meets once a week and has lots of other activities throughout the year like camping this past weekend (more on that in a second). The younger brother is pretty laid back and just does the scout thing as well, and once a week does a skating class, bot because he wants to play hockey, he just wants to skate better with his friends at public skating (there is an arena near school).

And outside of all of that we still need to keep the house functioning and keep connecting with each other. My wife and I are busy, and it feels like there is little time to recharge.

A perfect microcosm of this hectic life was last weekend. The Cub Scouts had a two night camping trip planned. Because my youngest has food allergies I volunteer and go along to manage the cooking and watch the ingredients for potential allergens. We arrive Friday evening and set up camp and try to sleep through the 4 degree Celsius temperatures. Even with two sleeping bags (one inside the other) and two other blankets (one above and one below) I still was chilled by my air mattress sucking heat away from me. Kids were not as cold thankfully.

Saturday I spent the cold day following around my youngest son through the planned activities and cooking meals. But as dinner time came along rumours of a snow storm floated and the flakes began to fall around 5. By six the accumulation was picking up and 15 centimeters was forecast. My tent was just a summer tent not designed to handle the heavy snow that was falling on it, so I made the decision for a speed packup in the storm, throw everything and my kids in the van, and get the hell out of dodge. The roads were hell so the normally 40 minute drive took twice as long Saturday night in the poor visibility of the storm.

Sunday I spent part of the day trying to recuperate and part putting all the camping stuff back in the crawlspace. It barely felt like I had a weekend at all before I was back at work.

Fatherhood is exhausting.