Welcome back, Paul LeBoeuf III…
For anyone that’s seen the movie “The Rookie”, there’s a scene where the guy is attending the tryouts and has to juggle between that and his kids…including a diaper change at a most inconvenient time. This is the reality of a parent. This is the reality that I live in.
Chasing a dream is hard enough in itself but add parenting on top of that and it can be nearly impossible. On one side it forces you to become an expert at time management, on the other, it leaves you with an unpredictable schedule that can be frustrating at times.
I have my kids each weekday from 7am – 3:30pm and then head out to work from 4pm – midnight. I have two little ones at home, a 2 year old boy and an 8 month old girl. They don’t care if daddy needs to get in a workout or spend some extra time with healthier meal prep. They just want their natural needs met, and usually right away. This creates quite the difficulty in trying to get in training time. I can’t really schedule a workout without the stars completely aligning.
So what are my options.
- I could get up super early (about 5am) and workout. Could be hard since I work so late and don’t usually fall asleep till 2 in the morning.
- I could try to get them to nap at the same time in the afternoon and workout then. This is the one I try the most with about 50% success. For me, it’s tough psychologically to have to quit in the middle of a workout to grab the child that decides today they don’t want to nap.
- Final option would be to get a babysitter. This one is unrealistic as it would just be too hard on the wallet.
So I squeeze in what I can, when I can. It could be as simple as walking to work or going into beast mode cleaning up the house. These kids are my life and they will always come first. Baseball is a privilege, but being a dad is a responsibility. I won’t lie and say that I’ve got this all balanced out, because I don’t. It can be discouraging at times and bringing the mental side to balance is just as important.
But I am determined and I will keep going. I knew coming in that this would be one of the greatest challenges of my life. I’m in it for the long run. Well I hear baby girl crying and there is a suspicious odor coming from the boy. I should probably take care of that. Till next time…