This year my two oldest kids started middle school and high school and the two youngest are still in grade school. This means that the oldest one has to be at school at 7 a.m. and the youngest not until 9 a.m. This also means that the oldest gets out at 2:00 and the youngest at 3:30.
I work nights and sleep in the day so I can get them to and from school and make sure they aren't getting into trouble in the afternoons, but this new schedule means that when I come home from work I only have from about 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. to sleep. It also means that every time I work I have to stay awake and still function at a reasonably high level for about 20 hours at a time.
I also have three boys playing youth football on two different teams who practice on different days, so the running never seems to stop. Now add in doctor's appointment, ER visits (not work related) and all other parental responsibilities and I'm buried.
I've barely written anything since this started and I'm too flustered to track submissions, so all writerly things have come to a standstill.
Lately I've been thinking that the only logical thing to do is put writing/publishing dreams on the back burner for now, but I feel like if I do I might never get back to it, or that it will be years before I do. (Like when I decided to take a "break" from college at 22 and didn't get back to it until I was 30.)
Has anyone else done this and lived to tell about it? Is it weird that I feel greedy for not wanting to give it up? I've learned a lot in the last couple of years and my writing has certainly improved. I don't want to dust off the keyboard at a later date and find that I'm so rusty I can only write in shorthand, because that's what happened the last time I "took a break" from writing. Can you break from writing for years and not have to start over at step one?
Sorry if this seems whiny, but it's not really something I can talk to my non-writer friends about. To them, it's just a hobby. To me, it's momentum and opportunities lost.
Okay, long post. I'll shut up now.
I work nights and sleep in the day so I can get them to and from school and make sure they aren't getting into trouble in the afternoons, but this new schedule means that when I come home from work I only have from about 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. to sleep. It also means that every time I work I have to stay awake and still function at a reasonably high level for about 20 hours at a time.
I also have three boys playing youth football on two different teams who practice on different days, so the running never seems to stop. Now add in doctor's appointment, ER visits (not work related) and all other parental responsibilities and I'm buried.
I've barely written anything since this started and I'm too flustered to track submissions, so all writerly things have come to a standstill.
Lately I've been thinking that the only logical thing to do is put writing/publishing dreams on the back burner for now, but I feel like if I do I might never get back to it, or that it will be years before I do. (Like when I decided to take a "break" from college at 22 and didn't get back to it until I was 30.)
Has anyone else done this and lived to tell about it? Is it weird that I feel greedy for not wanting to give it up? I've learned a lot in the last couple of years and my writing has certainly improved. I don't want to dust off the keyboard at a later date and find that I'm so rusty I can only write in shorthand, because that's what happened the last time I "took a break" from writing. Can you break from writing for years and not have to start over at step one?
Sorry if this seems whiny, but it's not really something I can talk to my non-writer friends about. To them, it's just a hobby. To me, it's momentum and opportunities lost.
Okay, long post. I'll shut up now.