as a person with a partner and a toddler in my 30’s, it certainly makes it harder. Mostly the baby thing. They are expensive and require a great deal of time and attention and love and labor. I had to stop or cut down to a huge degree many of the things that I would do in my spare time because the amount of spare time i had was also cut to a massive degree. Over time, you learn to deal with them while taking time for yourself, and they also become slightly more autonomous over the years, but yeah, having a full time job and a toddler brings you very close to wiping out any hobbies.
I don’t know what these people spend their time with their kids are actually doing. I get it if both parents are working and stuff and also when they’re under 2 years old, but I think they think their kids want to be their own personal friend and they need to spend all their time with them, which is not how it’s been from like year 0 until like 2010. I had a brother and a toy room to do stuff, I wasn’t watching Barney with my parents every moment of my child life.
(Disclaimer: I do not have children and never will unless something goes horribly wrong)
A lot of it is just being physically present at home. The general consensus I’ve seen from parents is that until the youngest is over 10, they need supervision, so at least one parent is going to have to be there at all times. This obviously gets exacerbated if eg the parents split up or have work schedules that don’t line up. Some people can get around this with daycare or family help, but a lot of people don’t have enough money or eg retired parents who can do childcare.
There’s also kids doing their own hobby stuff. If Timmy wants to play soccer, well, that means that the parents have to take him and are now losing their own Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. From what I’ve seen, a lot of kids will have 2-3 such activities. The parents I’m friends with generally are only free like one night a week until the kids hit their mid-teens and become more autonomous.
All of this is likely made worse by horrendous infrastructure design in the US that necessitates having a car everywhere but major cities.
strange question, does this imply people with babies and partners don’t have hobbies or life goals or something?
I struggle to do hobbies that exist outside my place. I get gaming and phone time but it’s certainly tough.
Babies aren’t babies for very long tbh but babies specifically delete all free time
as a person with a partner and a toddler in my 30’s, it certainly makes it harder. Mostly the baby thing. They are expensive and require a great deal of time and attention and love and labor. I had to stop or cut down to a huge degree many of the things that I would do in my spare time because the amount of spare time i had was also cut to a massive degree. Over time, you learn to deal with them while taking time for yourself, and they also become slightly more autonomous over the years, but yeah, having a full time job and a toddler brings you very close to wiping out any hobbies.
I don’t know what these people spend their time with their kids are actually doing. I get it if both parents are working and stuff and also when they’re under 2 years old, but I think they think their kids want to be their own personal friend and they need to spend all their time with them, which is not how it’s been from like year 0 until like 2010. I had a brother and a toy room to do stuff, I wasn’t watching Barney with my parents every moment of my child life.
(Disclaimer: I do not have children and never will unless something goes horribly wrong)
A lot of it is just being physically present at home. The general consensus I’ve seen from parents is that until the youngest is over 10, they need supervision, so at least one parent is going to have to be there at all times. This obviously gets exacerbated if eg the parents split up or have work schedules that don’t line up. Some people can get around this with daycare or family help, but a lot of people don’t have enough money or eg retired parents who can do childcare.
There’s also kids doing their own hobby stuff. If Timmy wants to play soccer, well, that means that the parents have to take him and are now losing their own Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. From what I’ve seen, a lot of kids will have 2-3 such activities. The parents I’m friends with generally are only free like one night a week until the kids hit their mid-teens and become more autonomous.
All of this is likely made worse by horrendous infrastructure design in the US that necessitates having a car everywhere but major cities.
the people i’ve known in hobby spaces who have kids completely disappear from it as they have no time for anything outside of work and childrearing