How much time is enough?

I grew up in a home that did not always make the income level that would be considered above the poverty line. My father worked long hours trying to run a lawn mower sales and service business. And then when he came home he either had to fix something on the house, mow the grass, fix his own lawn mower, or do firewood to heat the house. My mom cleaned other peoples homes to help with the income. But somehow, I have fond memories of my parents going outside with me while I played, taking me to baseball practice and even staying to watch my games, and sitting down together at the table for dinner. Now that I have a child, I know the difficulty of trying to find time to do what you want to do on top of doing whatever you have to do to bring home the bacon. I am blessed to still have my parents in my life who want to spend time with their grandchildren. I know that not everybody has that opportunity. I want to encourage you to find ways to spend time with your kids and still do what you want to do. It is my personal belief that one problem we have in our society is that parents want to have individuality and are trying not to be defined as parents. I know that there are things I enjoy doing that are often difficult to find time to do like hunting, riding my motorcycle, and even reading. Lame I know. I believe we need to make parenting our priority, but i also believe that we need to pull in our recources to make it possible to go do the things that revitalize us. We need to resync with what charges us so that we can be the best parents we can be. Use your friends, use your parents, use your kid's friend's parents, so that you can go have a cup of coffee with a friend, sit in a treestand for a couple of hours, or take your spouse on a date. The point is, be creative. Invest your time in your children, but also invest your time in yourself.