Fitting in with the kids

We caught up with a few friends last night. We headed out to a local Thai restaurant.

It wasn’t a late night, probably because we all had kids at home. We needed to get home to relieve the babysitters.

I guess another reason it wasn’t a late night also had a lot to do with the children. Having kids certainly puts you into the routine of eating earlier in the evening so we had quite an early booking at the restaurant.

I remember dinners in the past that started late and went on well into the night. These days if we’re not eating by seven my tummy starts asking questions.

Children bring about all kinds of changes to our routines. Sometimes the changes are so subtle that we don’t even notice them.

Are there things you do differently now because you have children? Are there any routines you started when your children were young that have just stuck ever since? Are there routines that are still in place even thought your children have outgrown the reason those routines were put int place?



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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4 Comments

  • I stopped swearing when I had kids. Not, funnily enough, when I decided to do the Christian thing. Maybe that’s because I think Jesus probably swore a lot. But not, you know, in front of the kids.

  • I remember a friend who decided to change his language when his parents were staying at his house.

    Some friends of his folks turned up one morning and knocked on the door. This guy’s very young son answered the door. When they asked, “Are granny and grandpa there?” the young boy said, “Nah. The old turds are still asleep.”

  • I stopped wearing nail polish (babies suck fingers, you know) and wearing heels and I just haven’t gotten back into those things, although my daughters are all now in their 20s.

    But hubby and I are slowly getting used to our new freedom, we did experience an empty nest last year which we settled into very quickly but then had to get used to 2 adult children being back home again last Christmas and for this year. We look forward to their moving on again – we love them but we do so enjoy our time alone too, now that they are older and so are we!

  • Kathie, we’re still a fair way off the empty nest. Emily’s 12 next month and James is 9. I’m sure we’ll enjoy having a house to ourselves when it eventually happens but it’s the furthest thing from our minds at the moment. 🙂

    Of course the past twelve years have raced by so quickly, I’m sure it’ll rush up so quickly that we won’t know what hit us.

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