One thing our parents found out too late is the need to have lives outside of the things that we do daily. That’s our parents having a life outside of work, and also having something tangible besides us, the kids. This is because work has this capacity to swallow up your time, energy, and everything good you have to offer. Kids also have that ability. You start off thinking that you have time, but you’re wrong! You don’t have any time, and suddenly, twenty years have passed, and you’re still doing the same thing. Working hard and taking care of your children.
You see why this is risky, because it doesn’t actually matter if things work out or not. If you succeed in your career and you’re able to build a considerable wealth, what happens afterward when you have to retire and spend your day not working? How will you cope after doing the same thing and being active for 30+ years? And the same thing goes for children. When you’ve spent so much of your adult life centered around your children, what happens when they all leave home and you suddenly have to look inward and think about what you have to offer yourself?
This is a very important matter because eventually, it will happen to all of us. We’ll all have to retire one day, if we don’t do it, our health and our bodies will do it for us. And our children will also leave our houses one day, because anything else will most likely mean that we messed up our role as parents. So, what happens when the things that used to be the crux of our existence stop having such importance, and we need to replace them with something else? That’s how essential this topic is.
This is not me saying that we should not take care of our own kids or be efficient at work, but also develop hobbies while we’re at it. Get things that will be unique to us, so that in our old age, we won’t have to rely on our children to keep us occupied. For some, after retirement, they open up a store to sell goods. Not because they need the money, but because they need the distraction. Others pick up farming, traveling, and some get more active in religious activities, things that would get them out of the house more often. Anything at all that will stop them from staying at home and doing nothing.
So, learn more hobbies today, have a life outside of your job, and also outside of raising kids. Let there be more to your identity. If not, maybe not today, but in the next twenty to thirty years, when retirement comes knocking, you’d be wondering what you’ll use all that free time to do. Now is the time to figure it out.
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