One recurring theme that my guests on The Art of Fatherhood podcast tell me is that time with your kids goes by so fast. Yes, it might sound cliché, but it is true. When you first become a parent you are flooded with so many emotions and thoughts. In this instance time slows down. When your child isn’t sleeping through the night you feel like time moves at a snail’s pace.
As your kids get older, years go by so much faster. I was thinking about how my kids are about halfway in their school years. In a few years they will be off to college or starting their careers and my wife and I will be empty nesters. This made me think about how much more time is left on my parenting timer. You never stop being a parent, but the parenting timer for me refers to how much time you have with your kids before they become adults.
The Pace Of Your Timer
Time is relative. I think we all understand that. One moment when time always moves slow for me is when I am doing planks while working out. Those seconds tick by like they are stuck in molasses. It is the exact opposite when I am thinking about my parenting timer. I see the Monday memes every week when the weekend is over. People are sharing I hate Monday memes that would make Garfield proud, but for me weeks are starting to fly by. I can’t believe that we are almost midway through the year. When my kids were younger the hours seemed to fly by, but not the day itself. Let me explain what I mean here.
When my oldest was in kindergarten and my youngest was in pre-school I had two and a half hours to myself. I would blink and then it would be time to drive to my daughter’s pre-school to pick her up. Then in another blink I was in the carpool line picking up my oldest at her elementary school. Running errands was always a fun game of beat the clock. I would map out my day by which stores I could go to after the school drop off in the morning. I always wondered when my trophies or gold star stickers would arrive at my door when I was able to go to three stores before pick up time at pre-school. When we got home after school, time would slow down a bit. I would play with my kids and then work on dinner. The hours from dinner to bedtime seemed like six hours. In reality it was only about two and half hours.
Prepare To Fast Forward
Now I don’t have any clue on why the hours go by so fast in a day. From morning to late afternoon it seems time is speeding by. The evening hours tend to move faster now than it did when my kids were younger. My daughters still want to spend time with my wife and I and I enjoy that time in the evening. I can’t slow down time. I don’t want to slow down time. For me I am just realizing that when I look at my parenting timer days will turn into weeks, weeks will turn into months faster than they ever did before. I hope reading this helps you realize how fast time moves the older we get. Make sure you glance at your own parenting timer before that timer reaches all zeroes.
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