Hi Everyone ,

Welcome to The Word of Dad.

This is the first post and each week I will be writing about what I have learned and experienced as a Father of two sons.

I will also be keeping a journal of what has been happening over the week. This may give some insight into what it is like to be a parent and we also serve to remind me of all the little details that get lost and forgotten otherwise.
 
 

 
 
This weeks topic is:

Work time vs Family Time.

Most of us have to work and in today's hectic climate we all have to work a lot.

The time of our lives when we are busiest with work generally coincides with when we become parents, getting the balance between the two is never an easy task.

About eighteen months ago I became conscious of the fact that even though I always spent time with my sons it was not necessarily quality time.

I realised I had slipped into a bad habit of sending the odd email or making a business call during my time with children.

Children have no real concept of the pressures of work and deadlines etc .

I was distracted and thinking about work , 'just doing one more thing' or saying 'not now I will look later' when they wanted to show me something they had done.

I am self employed and my work hours are not set. I rarely get to finish at a set time everyday because my work is done when the job is done.

Pushing myself and building my business are important but a life is all about balance.

One day I was hit by the realisation that my sons had grown up , almost over night, and I had sort of missed parts of that because I was not taking the time to fully take it all in.

As adults it is good practice to defer immediate wants and needs in order to gain more in the long run and that was kind of the mindset I was stuck in.

This rule should not apply to parenting as children require constant attention but set within a good boundaries.

My sons are still young but it is scary how quick they grow up and how fast the weeks and months go by.
 
 

 
 

My solution.

 
Now when it is time for us to spend time together I switch off from work mode and on to full father mode.

Depending on the day of the week things vary but always at 5 pm I make sure I am ready to spend time with them until bed time.

I also make a concerted effort to take note of the small things.

Due to this mind set switch alone our time together has transformed and we have a much better relationship because of it.

I will go into more detail about the routines I have implemented and now enjoy with my sons in future posts.
 
 

 
 

Conclusion.

 
It does take consistent effort not to let life get in the way of family time but at the end of the day what is life all about anyway if not family.

I have found a new richness in my life from really being part of my sons childhood.
 
 

 
 

This Week's Journal.

 

The boys had their hair cut which made them look smart, their hair had got a bit wild.

At school it was pyjama day so they had some cool new threads for that, it seemed to be good fun.

It is all about girlfriends at the the moment , in the most innocent way possible.

Today I took the boys to see my Father and we took a broken television.

My eldest is very interested in anything electronic and my Dad was an electrician and precision engineer by trade.

My Mother was out so I left the eldest there so they could have some quality Grandfather/ Grandson time.

This meant I could get some time purely with my youngest, which doesn't happen all that often because he is the first to go to bed.

It really was a joy and we had great fun just joking around , but always learning as well.

Tomorrow we are off to the woods for our weekly nature walk although we still have not worked out what we are looking for.

We shall see......

You can see last weeks here;

Weekly Nature walk # 6 Monster Edition!!!

 
 

 
 
We have started a woodworking community here on steemit and would welcome you.

We have a discord channel, link here: Woodworking on Steem Discord Channel And a weekly woodworking post competition ,
you can read the post here;

Weekly Woodworking Competition #5
 
 

 
 

@woodworkcurators is a daily curation service for the woodworking community.

You can read about us here
 
 

 
 

Steemfollower is a great way to get more upvotes from like minded steemians.
 
 

 
 

Many thanks for reading,

Until next time,

@jist