I've noticed in the last few years that it's getting harder for me to write code in my spare time, as a hobby. Yeah, I have this hobby "business" that I've been at for closing in on two decades, and I've always enjoyed it. There have been those fun instances of finishing up a new feature after several hours of work, then a late night deployment, and the satisfaction of seeing it all out in front of tens of thousands of people.
I still enjoy that process, but it has been harder and harder the last few years to really engage in it. Parenthood is a huge part of that, of course, and it has in some ways become harder. When Simon was tiny, sure, I was physically tired, but the challenges he faces these days result in more emotional and mental exhaustion. Throw in cycles at work where I am very much in the weeds of complex software (this varies a lot because of my career stage and differences in scope of the various projects I'm involved in), and it gets harder to have anything left over for the hobby.
There isn't really a lot to give. I just try to squeak stuff in where I can, because I don't know that I can really realign priorities much. I don't think I'm complaining exactly, I just wish I could figure it out.
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