Limited by a Child?

By strict definition, yea, children can be a hindrance (or hinderance, apparently both are correct).  They can certainly interfere with or delay your actions.  Such as when a diaper needs to be changed immediately after a previous diaper was changed and you're already late for church.  They can also limit you from taking certain actions or participating in certain activities, though this is more your choice most of the time vs. an actual constraint b/c you have a child.  For example you may choose to leave a movie early b/c the baby sitter called and your child is crying at home.  The child crying causes you to go home, but you didn't actually HAVE to.  Or you choose not to go out to eat b/c it's harder with a child, but you could still go out to eat, it's not like you're actually limited to eating at home all the time.  So you can make up your own mind on these types of examples...

I think the longest Tiffany and I have left Zac with someone else has been about 45 mins to an hour.  With him nursing it's hard to leave for much more than 3-4 hours anyway.  (we could pump and leave him for longer, we aren't against that, but that's a whole 'nother post.  Short answer: we don't do that).  As far as overnight trips go, we take Zac.  We always plan to take him, and any other children.  Tiffany and I may take some weekend trips alone, b/c they are important too.  But as far as 99% of our trips go, they are family vacations and our children will be taken on them. 

This past weekend we went to the mountains.  We hiked up to the lower part of Linville Falls.  We did it with a stroller.  We started to turn around after a short hike that didn't get us all the way to the lower part of the falls.  We were then coaxed by friends into going farther.  The stroller may have played a part in our initial decision, but honestly, I don't think it did.  After all, we went 2 years ago without any kids and turned around at the same spot.  Laziness: yes, limited by a child: no.  We also could have easily prepared and taken one of those back-pack baby carrier things and hiked all the way to the top.  Making it to the lower portion that we hiked to definitely took more effort because we had Zac with us.  Most things we do now take more effort becuase he is with us.  However, nothing we have wanted or thought about doing has been impossible because of him.  We still eat out, we still take trips, we still hike Linville Falls, camp, go to football games, etc.  Come to think of it, I can't think of one thing we used to do that we don't do anymore because we now have Zac with us.  There also isn't anything we leave him behind on so that we can do it.  I would say most parents who feel limited by children feel that way because they choose to avoid the extra effort, not because the actual activity is impossible. 

We have changed some behaviors.  We will get home earlier than we used to.  Stop more frequently on long trips.  Take longer getting ready in the morning, thus cutting out some time we have during the day on vacations.  Yea, things have changed, but I wouldn't say any of our activities have been eliminated. 

Even if it were impossible to participate in certain activities with a child (I'm sure there are some, may be we are just boring), I would not feel limited by Zac.  After all, how can he limit us, we chose to have him.  We chose to take him to the mountains instead of leaving him with a sitter so that we could more easily participate in activities such as hiking to the falls.  I loved the falls, they were beautiful.  But if I were unable to make it because my son was with me, I made that choice.  I would make it the same way a million times over.  I would rather spend my time sitting on my living room floor watching Zac laugh than do anything in the world.  I would also rather do some of those things with him vs. sitting on the living room floor.  I am not limited by him, and I choose to put forth any extra effort it takes to have him with me because he and Tiffany are the most important things in my life.  If I'm not with them, what's the point of seeing Linville Falls, who am I sharing that moment with anyway?

So if you plan to have kids... Will they limit what you can do: I don't think so.  Will you need to put forth more effort, possibly be a little more selfless: yea.  Either way, will it be worth it: Absolutely!

Climbing the path...

Making his way to the top!

At the Falls

At the Falls