[linkregister]

As your kids get older, and especially when they enter school, a large part of the evening will be spent by them doing homework. Their weekends will be spent more with friends and doing activities (organized sports, etc). You'll have more time to yourself.

In the meantime, enjoy your family time because your kids won't always want to spend all their free time with you (they'll have friends and hobbies to compete with you).

Make sure to exercise. So many on HN experience health problems that originate from inadequate exercise. 30 minutes per day should be sufficient.

8 1/2 hours of sleep per night seems to be an hour longer than what I would expect would be necessary, but if you're getting woken up by a baby then that is good time budgeting.

[ashark]

Note that 30 minutes/day is a much bigger commitment for a parent of young kids than other people. I've run the numbers in posts on here before, but the TL;DR is that you've got ~28 hrs of kid-free (and non-work/commute) time a week without cutting into sleep, but before taking out unavoidable activities (prepping for the next day, cleaning, spouse time) that's likely to eat at least half of it. So 30min/day is like 25% of your kinda-halfway-free time if you're sleeping 8hrs, unless you get creative and multi-task with it somehow—maybe you go running with friends so you get some face-time with them while exercising, for instance, though not everyone has that particular option for various reasons. And of course you can always take it out of kid-time, say by "working" 30 minutes longer but taking a workout break during the day.

There's a reason parents tend to get fatter, aside from just aging. :-/

[theossuary]

A bigger commitment than driving 2 hours? I definitely don't know the difficulty of managing time while having young children, but it's easier to justify cutting down on commute time than cutting down on exercise time.

Maybe consider talking with your boss about working from home two/three times a week, that commute time could then be a break in the middle of the day to work out, and a little extra time at the end of the day to be with your kids.

[linkregister]

Absolutely, this is true. I'd say your 28 hour estimate is high by a factor of 3x at least. But without exercise, the risk of developing health problems that destroy all that kid-free time is higher.

Getting a back injury from lack of core strength or losing your energy due to obesity harms your entire life.

I'm suggesting regular exercise as a cautionary piece of advice.

[vanderreeah]

Agree. Have a job, kid, and a need to eat, relax at least for an hour in the evening, and sleep. 30 mins exercise a day (which incl. prep and travel to place of exercise could easily turn to an hour) seems as luxurious to me as having a private chauffeur.

[linkregister]

Your schedule sounds more like mine. 28 hours of leisure per week? That's unreal!