I’m not what my wife would call a patient man. I’ve come to terms with that and as a result I feel I’ve developed a much keener sense of patience than I once had. I have a small amount of self-control when it comes to Best Buy and Gamestop (though that may at least partially have something to do with the new house and my bouncing bundle of trouble), and I don’t immediately start banging the steering wheel at a too slow line of cars behind a green light.
But today is a perfect example of the degrees of patience I’ve started to develop, if only because if I didn’t I feel I might rupture an artery. I’m a father now and a damn proud one. I love spending time with my son. He’s too awesome not to. Right now, for instance, he’s running back and forth across the kitchen floor in his walker holding out a set of toy keys and screaming various bits nonsense. Two little teeth sticking out and a whisp of hair stuck perpetually on end, he is the epitome of 8 months old. I love it.
So, when the weekend comes and my wife needs a little bit of time to herself, I’m excited to take him to a weekly music class, walk around the park and strap him into my Ergo Baby Carrier for a jaunt around Trader Joe’s and Petco. It’s quite literally a once in a lifetime experience and I take advatnage of it.
While having a baby of any age requires a certain degree of patience, that’s not necessarily what I’m talking about. It’s all that extra time I used to have, suddenly evaporated like steam at the local Starbucks I now frequent much more often than I once did. It’s gone and while I sometimes feel the pinch of being forced to get things done in a set window, mostly I feel a sense of impatience when I have an exciting product in the works and absolutely no time to work on it.
For example, I am in the midst of writing an eBook containing 101 tips to help writers be more efficient. It’s a lot of fun and allows me to write about all the cool tips and tricks I’ve developed in my 5 years as a content writer, but where I would have worked on it Saturday each week before, I know work on it…whenever I can. I grow impatient to some degree because really when Jack is running back and forth in his walker, taking out plants and scaring the hair off our poor dog, I am sitting there watching him do it, making sure he doesn’t get stuck, start chewing on something he shouldn’t or otherwise getting into trouble. Some writing may get done, but invariable it’s a lot less than planned.
Hence I am a more patient man than I once was. It helps a lot that I love spending time with Jack and never feel like I’m missing out in any way when he is bouncing off of floorboards and chairs. It’s fun and if a little part of my brain keeps pecking away saying “let’s work on that book!” I am more relaxed than I ever would have been in saying “maybe tomorrow”.
