One for the parents – what did you do before kids that you wish you still did?

Following on from the other threads – it occurred to me that those things I successfully introduced to my partner we’ve hardly done together since we had kids. (haven’t been XC skiing or on the tandem at all).

I’m sure this thread won’t end well either, but if you could try and avoid the obvious answers…

(Oops, was just getting it in and I don’t read the last part of your post. Edited.)

Take photos of things that are not my son. 😆

I’ve only uploaded one photo to flickr in the last 6 months and have only photographed him, basically. Not that he’s not beautiful, of course!

Sleep

Riding every Saturday, without fail.

Going to nice restaurants that had stupid crap on it like Foam or serving on Slate.
Having several real ales on the way home work.
We’ve not been to the Cinema for 3 years!

I must miss the foodie aspect of it all I find myself making smears of balsamic reduction on a tuesday night dinner 😉

lay in bed together on a Sunday morning and listen to the Archers omnibus.

sex

We still do most things we once did but not as often and not as spontaneous, yes that includes a quickie.

I’d go away for a few days with the lads at a moments notice if the waether turned hot. Whilst out shopping, visiting friends or walking it’ll suddenly turn into a beer session and we’d be plastered.

Now we just have to plan for it.

TBH not a lot… or certainly nothing i can think of.

I’d guess the only thing is not going to the pub to watch the football, instead i watch it at home. But that’s partly because we moved somewhere away from a town too.

I guess going out for meals with the wife… but then again we didn’t do it that often. I don’t drink these days, which i did in the past, so it’s not because of my son i don’t drink, but my more active lifestyle.

We used to do lots of long weekends skiing, jumping in the car on a Thursday evening whenever the weather was looking like it was going to be epic or simply on a whim.
It isn’t something you can do if the offspring needs picking up from school, booking into ski lessons, etc. Not saying we haven’t, but it just requires a little more effort. As all parents know, getting children ready to go out and into the car in a hurry can be a proper PITA.

Edit: Yeah, spontaneous get-togethers with mates don’t really ‘happen’ without prior arrangement, which takes the fun out of it a little.

Disposable income

Looked in my bank account and actually found I had some money 🙁

Lie ins and riding together.

Otherwise most stuff isn’t as important as we thought it was at the time and don’t miss it.

GaryLake – Member
stuff isn’t as important as we thought it was at the time and don’t miss it.

Pretty much sums it up. If you can’t get your head around that, don’t have kids.

Stuff slightly less important than kids (ie. bikes) just gets moved to a different, flexible time slot.

surfed a hell of a lot more and worried less.

Windsurf, gliding and dinghy sailing.

Windsurfing combined with gliding is the ultimate single mans pass time. It takes days of hanging around for the right weather conditions. Every weekend would be spent on a beach or an airfield, sleeping in the back of my van. Not really baby friendly (but they’ll join me when they are a couple of years older!)
Dinghy sailing I did with my wife. Until we are able to palm the nippers off or they are old enough to join in, we’ll put that on hold.
It’s not all bad though, I re-stated mountain bike riding as I could do it from my door in an afternoon whatever the weather.

lay in bed together on a Sunday morning and listen to the Archers omnibus.

We have a winner.

That and going way for the weekend. Kids tend to have so many activities that time gets filled up

slept.

Nothing of any significance

Was still climbing Munros when mrs rocket was 6 months pregnant and rocket jr bagged his first at the age of 3 months in a papoose. While he was little he came with us everywhere and did what we did then his sister came along and it was the same. The bikes have had child seats & tags and the kids still love bikes. On the flip side we participated in the kid’s activities I enjoyed it, it wasn’t a chore. I look forward to the day when rocket jr is old enough to buy his old man a pint in the pub we get on really well together.

The kids are part of the family not some random people who we’ve been given the task of looking after.

used to play football regularly but gave it up when Jnr came along, can’t say i miss the weekly scrap five a side that much 😀

Spending all weekend in the hills together, 8-10 hour epic walks and rides.

Its not that I wish we still did it, I know we can’t (on a regular basis) and I don’t mind that. I am looking forward to being able to do it again, especially when my 2 sons are big enough to enjoy it with us.

Edit – before both the boys were born, we were all up Blencathra 8 days before my wife went into labour. First one was back up there with us 10 weeks later (second one hasn’t had a chance to be quite adventurous yet). Son #1 climbed Catbells on his own aged 3 1/2 and is happily picking out fells to do next.

Magic mushrooms.

What Drac and squidlord say really.

Had some money
Combed my hair
Slept more than 3 hours continuous

I must admit, it’s better now he’s grown up and we effectively have a live in lodger (who pays no rent) but the hair and sleeping pattern ain’t never coming back.

Traveling to exotic destinations with a loose itinerary. Gets very expensive with a family of four during school holidays and I am less willing to trust to chance when finding accommodation, food etc. Hopefully this will change as the kids grow up.

Camping weekends on the motorbike.

going to the cinema (got a lovefilm subscription instead)
occasionally finding yourself with nothing in particular to do

Not injure myself. Since I had kids I’ve broken more bones in three years than I have in the other 37 years I’ve been alive.

I don’t think it is to do with having kids myself, I think it is more that I am older and most people have kids, so spontaneity doesn’t happen as much as it used to.

Saying that I had my first son at 21, so I have always had to factor kids into my activities. We have a very full on lifestyle and having kids doesn’t stop that.
You just have to arrange things from a different perspective sometimes 🙂

Cinema – we used to go 2 or 3 times per month – now probably 2 or 3 times a year (if you discount kids movies)

Doing spontaneous stuff – like jumping in the car and driving to Brighton on a sunny evening because we fancied dinner on the beach…

Doing spontaneous stuff

+1. I don’t really miss my pre-child life, but having to plan everything well in advance can be a PITA.

What is this cinema thing that people keep going on about?

Not injure myself.

well there is that.

I broke my hip when my daughter was 3 months old.

That was a tricky call home to my wife.

+1,000,000 on spontaneity. Sleeping in, loads of snowboarding, never having to listen to anything to do with power rangers.

Sex. Lots of it. Oodles of it, sweaty, Olympic-style stuff.

Now

Frequent mountain biking
Motorbiking further away than the office
Holidays to non-family-friendly places
Cinema
Theatre

We do have a good time doing different things with the children, though, and I am well on the way to becoming my Dad as he was in the early 80s -I even find myself saying the same things… 😆

-I must have sub-consciously stored-up “Things that Dads say” in my memory for decades.

Sex. … Olympic-style stuff.

medals for coming first sort of thing?

hora – Member

Sex. Lots of it. Oodles of it, sweaty, Olympic-style stuff.

Now

There are clouds in the sky there, you may be lucky 😉

I do really miss the extravagant holidays, seeing my mates in Aus or snowboarding in the winter. We knew it was our last in 2007, taking in Aus and Thailand. Trips away with the lads motorcycling around Spain or Germany. Them were the days.
Anyway, at least I’ve been there and done it. Now I have lost a hell of a lot of freetime, but gained a new best friend who is gradually becoming a mini me 🙂