Apart from the obvious point that it is mind-bogglingly fantastic in itself (far more rewarding than all of this computer stuff) it had a profound effect on my work life balance.
Gone are stupid hours at work; I changed my work hours to fit nursery drop-off/collection times and even dropped to a 4 day week so I could spend quality time with my daughter rather than her going to nursery for an extra day. My productivity has improved (both subjectively and measured objectively during formal job reviews/appraisals) which I put down to being more focused during the limited hours I am at work to do my job as I know that I can't just do it later.
Outside hours, I can only access work (including email) if I bring my laptop home, and I now only do that for one weekend a month when I volunteer to be on call.
And now that she's nearly 3 I spend a lot of the time I would have been checking banal stuff on the Internet with play time and bonkers discussions with someone soaking up everything that's going on around her and developing her reasoning and understanding of it.
It's been long enough that I really have no idea what I used to do with all of my spare time before I became a father. Wouldn't change it for the world though, as I said, parenthood rocks.
P.S. It just keeps getting better and better too.
P.P.S. I reserve the right to change this when she becomes a mardy 11 year old.
We were (extremely) lucky as she slept through 7pm-7am straight from 3 months. Now she's older and wants to push the boundaries and assert herself she's battling us (and herself) at bedtime. It's usually 8pm but can be 9pm before she conks out but she is rarely ever awake before 6am, most days it's 6.30am. She's probably up in the night two or three times a week but has never failed to go back to sleep within minutes once tucked back in.
Of course I can choose to not go to bed until 1am every night, but with a highly mobile wriggly vocal 6am alarm clock that is impossible to ignore or 'snooze' you quickly learn not to. I've only got myself to blame if I don't get my 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night.
It's more the wistful memories of lazy weekend afternoons I used to spend slumped on the sofa watching football and not really achieving anything of an entire day (or weekend). A day at work is easy compared to keeping an active two year old entertained (but work is a lot more dull and far less rewarding - and I like my job!).
Same here we're even luckier that our daughter will entertain herself in her own bed until she decides it's time to sleep. So it's in bed at 7:45, but sometimes she'll be up signing until 8:30 or 9. The biggest difference in our house is the lazy weekend mornings. No more staying in bed until 10AM or 11AM. A hungry 2 year old is motivation to make an 8AM breakfast.
Apart from the obvious point that it is mind-bogglingly fantastic in itself (far more rewarding than all of this computer stuff) it had a profound effect on my work life balance.
Gone are stupid hours at work; I changed my work hours to fit nursery drop-off/collection times and even dropped to a 4 day week so I could spend quality time with my daughter rather than her going to nursery for an extra day. My productivity has improved (both subjectively and measured objectively during formal job reviews/appraisals) which I put down to being more focused during the limited hours I am at work to do my job as I know that I can't just do it later.
Outside hours, I can only access work (including email) if I bring my laptop home, and I now only do that for one weekend a month when I volunteer to be on call.
And now that she's nearly 3 I spend a lot of the time I would have been checking banal stuff on the Internet with play time and bonkers discussions with someone soaking up everything that's going on around her and developing her reasoning and understanding of it.
It's been long enough that I really have no idea what I used to do with all of my spare time before I became a father. Wouldn't change it for the world though, as I said, parenthood rocks.
P.S. It just keeps getting better and better too.
P.P.S. I reserve the right to change this when she becomes a mardy 11 year old.