Social Life

My idea of a great party.

They all said that any social life you want to have, you should get out of your system before you have kids. Why is that? I spend way more time in social situations now that I have kids than I ever did before. Evenings and weekends were time to put my feet up and relax. Watch some TV, read a book. Yes I went out, but once a week at the most. 
Last week I had evening soccer practice Thursday and Friday where parents wanted to talk to me the whole time. Then Saturday was a soccer game, then a trip out to the mall to see the new Lego store and mingle with way too many people, and then a nice quiet evening with two other couples and our combined eight children. Sunday was 6 hours of hanging out with a bunch of car guys autocrossing then right back to the soccer fields for make-up games that were missed last weekend. Before I had kids I would never ever ever have spent this much time out and about being social. Not that I didn't enjoy it, I certainly did. In fact, I enjoy the social activities I have as a parent more than I ever liked going out to loud bars and shouting hellos at strangers.
Sure, there's stuff you can't do as easily when you have kids, no one will deny that. Wishing you can have that back though is like my four year old wishing he was an adult so he can buy stuff. He tells me that nearly every time we're at the store. I tried explaining to him that he'll also have to work and pay taxes and take care of his own kids but he's convinced that being able to buy stuff will outweigh all of that. We'll revisit this in twenty years and I'm curious what he'll say about it then. 
Like all aspects of life, things being better or worse is usually a matter of outlook, and the change in social activities is right in line with that. I'm happy with the business and chaos and confusion that comes with a big family. I'm even happy with my social life.

Sorry about missing my Saturday post. As you read above, I was all busy and stuff. These things happen.