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My kids are almost five years apart. My son was in fifth grade when daughter starting playing high school sports.  When daughter started college softball son was starting high school sports. 

My job, coaching my daughter in softball through 18u, son through 16u (age fifteen) and coaching both in basketball through 14u was quite time consuming. I was also on the local youth sports board and two committes for fourteen years. 

We lived on a golf course. I got in nine holes on occasion. Sometimes at dusk i went out and chipped on the green closest to our yard for an hour. 

I tried to bike and ski. There wasn't much time for it. I get in a lot more since both kids are out of college. I played basketball in the driveway and in pickup games at the park. 

Life didn't slow down until we sold the company and daughter was done playing college softball. 

So, I've been at this 3 years since the journey ended and there has been plenty to do.   Oldest son threw his last college pitch 4 years ago and youngest son hung up the high school spikes 3 years ago. 

It comes down to 3 things for me.  First, I had a lot of yard work and house work to catch up on after 15 years of travel, high school, and college baseball.   We re-designed our upstairs master bedroom, and dining room.   Next project is to redesign the downstairs master bedroom and the kitchen.  Second, a little reward for my wife and myself as we travelled around the British Virgin Islands for our 25th wedding anniversary on a friend's large catamaran.  We've also travelled to Portugal and Mexico in the last couple years.  Lastly, I will continue to play tennis, workout and occasionally play golf when I really need to get my blood pressure up.  

I still follow local high school, college baseball, and some players I know in the professional ranks, but baseball is seen through an entirely different lens these days.

I switched from coaching the last 20yrs to teaching ag this year.  I did that to spend more time with my JH daughter that rodeos.  I just signed up with the local country club to start back to playing golf after 20 years of being away from the course.  We will see how that goes...lol

 

PS.... Be glad your kids are baseballing and not hauling horses,  Remember, it is not about getting that scholarship (you could easily pay for college with what we have spent on youth sports). It is about spending quality time with you kids.

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Funny, when I was a young adult, I was into everything.  No idea how I crammed so much in... baseball, football, basketball, hockey, water ski, snow ski, tennis, racquetball, camping, fishing, golf, motorcycles, lots of adventure trips, you name it (except soccer, of course ).  Kids came along and still managed to stay in touch with much of that, although most energy eventually went to participating in whatever the kids were into.  As the kids grew and started doing their own thing, focus became baseball.  HS coach, occasional showcase coach, instructor, tourney site director, helping youngest with his recruiting efforts, supporting his college playing efforts when possible, following my HS players that advanced, etc.  It became completely consuming.  Still is.  I am close to making a change back in the other direction.  Love what i do but I miss the other things and I owe my wife and grandkids a lot of time.  Need to do it while there is still time and some degree of physical ability to do so. 

Last edited by cabbagedad

Our time is close. Son has three more collegiate starts 🙏. Had dinner with him last night. Paid internship going well, a full time opportunity in the works. He's planning a three week European post graduation trip. MBA plan in place and will be completed in one year 🤞. He seems to be just fine moving forward. 

For us, we're starting a new chapter. Leaving CA & moving to Las Vegas this summer. Trying to figure out how to fill the baseball void. Maybe the World Poker tour. 

 

Picked Off posted:

Our time is close. Son has three more collegiate starts 🙏. Had dinner with him last night. Paid internship going well, a full time opportunity in the works. He's planning a three week European post graduation trip. MBA plan in place and will be completed in one year 🤞. He seems to be just fine moving forward. 

For us, we're starting a new chapter. Leaving CA & moving to Las Vegas this summer. Trying to figure out how to fill the baseball void. Maybe the World Poker tour. 

 

Wait. what?  And, what?   Who is supposed to fill your roster spots on the wine/other tasting train?!?!?!?!  This is worse than hearing about it on Facebook.

Iowamom23 posted:

Laundry.

Is that a hobby?

Ready for son to go off to college just to cut down the number of "costume changes" we deal with in a day. My favorite thing about him getting into a quality D1 program? They wash his practice clothes and uniforms.

I anticipate a lot more free time once he leaves in the fall.

Don't be surprised if you are still doing a lot of laundry from time to time.  This Fall, we traveled to West Lafayette to see Ryno.  He had approx. 4 loads of clean laundry in a pile on the floor.  They had to be washed, along with 6 other loads.  My wife and I did 10 loads of laundry the day we left!   

I went back to school to earn my MBA, and now I am filling the void with my Jr. daughter's activities, but she'll be a Sr. soon, so not much longer.  Spending more time with my wife, and we are starting to hike and ride bikes together.  

We are currently downsizing.  Just accepted offer on our house, and put in offer in today on the prospective, new house.  Our plan is to start a hair salon for my wife, so I'll be busy.

BS (before son). 

Goose or duck hunted every weekend day of season.  Deer hunted.  Fished, in-shore and off-shore.  Maintained my boat.  Snow skied.  Camped.  Solo backpacked.  (peak trip was an eight day 110 mile hike through SW Yellowstone).  Shot sporting clays. Played slow pitch softball (sometimes up to 200 games a year).  YMCA basketball leagues, Flag football leagues.  Co-ed volleyball.  Golfed (badly).  Partied with bros.  Stayed out late in clubs looking for women.  (Women of my dreams walked up to my cube at work one too many times, so I married her.)

DS (during son).

Eventually dropped playing sports.  Replaced with coaching baseball and basketball.  Dropped the coaching when he was 12.  Ran a youth basketball league for about five years.  At peak almost 1,000 kids in it.  Sold the off-shore boat about three years ago.  Introduced my son to all the outdoor sports, except backpacking.  But not near the intensity as before.  Son got his license last year, so less transportation duties on my part.  About to get back into fishing, this time fishing back bays, marsh and maybe freshwater lakes with a kayak.  Oh yeah, and watch a lot of baseball.

 

 

rynoattack posted:

I went back to school to earn my MBA, and now I am filling the void with my Jr. daughter's activities, but she'll be a Sr. soon, so not much longer.  Spending more time with my wife, and we are starting to hike and ride bikes together.  

We are currently downsizing.  Just accepted offer on our house, and put in offer in today on the prospective, new house.  Our plan is to start a hair salon for my wife, so I'll be busy.

Best of luck with the sale and purchase!  It can be stressful so hope it goes well.

Picked Off posted:

Our time is close. Son has three more collegiate starts 🙏. Had dinner with him last night. Paid internship going well, a full time opportunity in the works. He's planning a three week European post graduation trip. MBA plan in place and will be completed in one year 🤞. He seems to be just fine moving forward. 

For us, we're starting a new chapter. Leaving CA & moving to Las Vegas this summer. Trying to figure out how to fill the baseball void. Maybe the World Poker tour. 

 

Get in some satellites for the WSOP! Awesome fun experience. Never know, get on a run & you may get a seat...... 

Life goes in phases. Once long ago i had a different life before family life. As a kid time was all locked up in sports (grew up in the three sport era). I did find time to water ski and snow ski. As everyone knows college baseball was a huge time commitment. I remember waking up on some summer weekends wishing I could to the beach. But I had a summer league game.

After college I had money, was single and went nuts. My hobbies became things like dirt biking, white water rafting and canoeing (busted one in half on a rock on the Snake River), jumping out of airplanes, glacier climbing, hiking and skiing Tuckerman’s Ravine in the spring (on Mt Washington there’s a list of people who died sking off the edge). The subtle things i did were basketball, two man beach volleyball and some golf.

On one of my first dates with my future wife missed a putt and chucked her putter thirty feet. I knew she was the woman for me. Unfortunately, years later she was throwing the clubs at me. 

One if the biggest buckets of water on my lifestyle was when my wife said, “You have kids now. You have to stop doing this crazy **** that could get you killed.”

The irony of her statement was the friend I did all this crazy stuff with died at thirty-four when his chute failed while taking his para-sailing instructor’s certification test. It was one of those little chutes you jump off cliffs with. 

 

Qhead posted:
rynoattack posted:

I went back to school to earn my MBA, and now I am filling the void with my Jr. daughter's activities, but she'll be a Sr. soon, so not much longer.  Spending more time with my wife, and we are starting to hike and ride bikes together.  

We are currently downsizing.  Just accepted offer on our house, and put in offer in today on the prospective, new house.  Our plan is to start a hair salon for my wife, so I'll be busy.

Best of luck with the sale and purchase!  It can be stressful so hope it goes well.

Thanks!  It has been stressful, and the timing is going to be tight.  (I need the sell to fund, so that I can close in time to get new house.)  May have to stay with MIL for a couple of weeks because of timing.  She's a good lady, but Ugh!

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