Life on Paternity Leave

I'm about halfway through my two-week paternity leave, and I feel pretty good about life right now. Ashlee and I were able to get our home and garden in order shortly before Kate's birth—putting together new bookshelves, staining and sealing the deck, and so forth—and I've been able to complete some minor projects in my time off—reorganizing our CDs, arranging Meyer's large outdoor toys around the swingset to create a makeshift playground in the back yard, finally fixing the door to the laundry closet, and so on. As someone who isn't terribly handy and got burned out on the outdoors during my years as a Boy Scout, I take a great deal of pride in my meager home improvement and gardening endeavors.

During the past week I've also benefitted from what I haven't done. I've spent little time working in my vegetable garden while on leave, yet my first peppers and tomatoes appeared this week. (Granted the tomatoes are still really tiny.) This past week has been one of my most successful weeks at work since I began my current job over three years ago, and I haven't spent more than a few hours on work-related business.

I had hoped to use my time off to catch up on my reading and writing during my time off. My plan had been to finish Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips and to read in its entirety Anne Lamott's newest book. I will fail to meet this goal. I had also hoped to revisit my hapless attempts at fiction writing and to work out the lyrics to a song I've been toying with for months. Thus far I have done neither.

I can honestly say that being the father of two is not (so far) as difficult as I thought it would be. On the other hand, being the father of two small children is far more time consuming than I ever imagined. The Tinley household now consists of two adults and two children (along with four cats). In other words, we have a one-to-one child-to-adult ratio; so each adult always has the responsibility of watching one child. Watching a child puts constraints on what kinds of work one can do. For example, I can pull weeds while Meyer is playing outside or make dinner while Kate sleeps in her swing or carseat. Finding extended periods of time to sit in front of a computer is more difficult.

I suppose paternity leave brings both blessings and challenges, but I'm as happy as I've been in years. In this state of bliss I struggle to get worked up about the political skirmishes and religious disputes that provide me with much of my material, so forgive me for the inevitable lack of provocative content on my blogs in the coming weeks. My passion for Save Yourselves From This Corrupt Generation has likewise waned, but I'm sure it will return as I get used to being the father of two and discover that there is still room in my life for cynicism and disgust. But at the moment, I'm at peace with my world.