My wife and I went through the long and stressful process of doing foster-to-adopt through a local state-certified agency. The tale of this process is for another time. However, we got through it and have been blessed with two wonderful kids.
When the kids came along, all thoughts of hobbies went away. There simply wasn’t time, money, or energy to devote to doing anything but keeping the kids alive and growing. Both of them were classified as medically fragile and each had a host of issues to work through. My daughter was fed though a g-tube directly into her stomach, and my son had GERD and was on oxygen for his lung issues. Some days it felt like we were running a pediatric hospital.
Things are MUCH better today. The daughter’s g-tube is gone and she eats very well by mouth. She’s incredibly adventuresome in the foods she will try. The son still has some issues, which will be lifelong for him, but overall he’s doing well. If you didn’t know, you’d say he’s a normally hyper 4 year old.
Now that the kids are getting more self-sufficient, my wife and I can devote time to our neglected hobbies. My hope is by doing our fun stuff, the kids will want to do them too. I want to expand their imaginations and get them curious about what is around them. I want my kid to say, “Dad, can we go fishing today?”, and then be able to take them.
Speaking of fishing, I think this spring I’ll be taking the daughter over to a local lake and give her an introduction in bluegill fishing. I’m curious how she will react to touching bait and fish. I’m not sure she knows its supposed to be icky for a girl to touch those things. Then again, I’m reasonably sure I’ll be spending most of my time baiting the hook and taking the fish off. Time well spent, I say.
My son is captivated with the guitar. He’s always enjoyed music and it is one of the few things which will pull him right out of a temper tantrum. We bought the kids some cheap guitars a couple of years ago and he still likes to get it out and pretend to play. This is especially true since I brought the new guitar home and started practicing (not well, I might add). He wants to strum it and hold it and make music with it. I hope that I’m able to learn enough that I can teach him. Perhaps we can do this hobby together. I’d like that.
The son has become very interested in the aquarium over the past two weeks. He wants to feed the fish, but mostly he wants to stand there and watch them. He asks me, “Can I pet them?”. Sorry, little buddy, but these are not that kind of pet. I’m curious what he will do when I get the new aquarium up and going. Is this just a passing interest for him?
We will see what this year holds for hobbies and kids.