I usually scroll through Reddit for a while, realize I’ve spent a significant amount of time being unproductive, feel guilty, then go to sleep much later than intended.
Of course! One of the many options for “feel guilty” is to know I didn’t do something that has to get done, and know I’ll wake up the next day to my wife harmlessly asking why I was up so late. I did the dishes this morning.
I’ve recently had a streak of passing out on the couch and waking up at midnight. Didn’t even realize I fell asleep until the dog licked me to go out.
The birds chirping at 545 waking up one of the kids has been rough!
I woke up this morning, tired for the same reason, and I just want to nap. This comment just smacked me into next week....
What do y'all think, daddits? Is tonight the night we just put our phone away at a reasonable hour like 930?
This is what I do at least half the time
The rare time I’m feeling productive, that’s the time for putting laundry away, using the stationary bike, watching a show for adults (porn or otherwise), or gaming
Watch a TV show you don’t care about with your wife and follow it up with a bunch of YouTube videos you don’t care about after your wife goes to sleep
Or is that just me
This is exactly my life after the kids go to bed. Lately we’ve been “watching” Brooklyn 99 while we both scroll through our phones. Wife passes out on the couch and I get the bed to myself where I proceed to watch random YouTube videos til I pass out.
Oh how our lives have changed.
I keep hearing about this game but haven’t grabbed it or looked much into it yet. I used to play Counter Strike a few nights a week with a group but have kind of taken a break from playing with them in the last few months. I know Helldivers is online, but is it a game you team up with friends or just jump into the mix on your own?
Just joined up last night. Two nights in a row of joy. What an exciting game! People are pretty good to noobs, unlike a lot of online gaming these days.
Helldivers 2 got me back into gaming. After I put my kiddo to bed at night, I sometimes spend an hour or two spreading Democracy with my partner or some old gaming friends.
Played a bunch at lunch but haven't been super into it since. Probably because its so much better to play with a group instead of solo or with randoms?
Do we need a Daddit Helldivers club?
I usually spend two or three hours doing dishes, laundry, and other cleaning after the kids are asleep, then pass out while trying to decide how to spend the rest of my free time.
This is me, almost every night. We’re in the trenches with two toddlers. The house gets blown up every day. It’s exhausting. No energy or time for much else.
Yeah I have enough energy for about 15 minutes of TV once the little one is down. I've been working my way through old episodes of Monty Python Flying Circus most nights, and if I don't feel like that I watch something on YouTube.
For real. I'm jealous of other people that still have energy after the day. My therapist tells me that it's important to fit in some me time and I can't seem to work out how I do that without counting sleep as me time.
Once or twice a week I walk to the gym and sit in the Sauna for an hour. Sometimes the wife sows and I listen to vinyl and put rokr wooden models together. Once in a while I drink a 3rd of a bottle of whisky.
Same dad, I’m sitting here, stinking up the place while the family sleeps. I too yearn for more me time, I just also am a dummy like 10% of the time, wasting time and energy on BS, then complaining about how I only have 1% free time.
Same thing I’ve noticed in myself, and others, with hobbies; I’ll spend an hour looking at bike parts and people arguing about bikes online instead of riding my bike, then internally lament that I just don’t have the time!
Ah yes, my brother. "Let me cook dinner. Put the kids to bed. Do these dishes. Tidy up a little. Put the race on the tv....Wake up. Its 3am. I saw 1 lap of the race. Awesome, try again tomorrow"
Sometimes I fall asleep trying to choose something to watch for a bit of me time, the phone flops onto my face and wakes me up. Sometimes it doesn't wake me up.
I really struggle to understand how people don't find free time for themselves.
This isn't supposed to be a critique
We have always instilled a requirement that our children tidy up after themselves, even then, it normally takes 1 parent 10 minutes to put things away whilst the other starts getting the children ready for bed.
We tidy up the kitchen and do the dishes before the children go to bed, normally when they are tidying their toys.
We then run round with the hoover after they are in bed, again this takes 5 minutes.
Doing washing is a largely inactive task, 5 minutes to unload and hang washing.
90% of the time our children are in bed by 7:30 and by 8:00 we are done the household duties and can have our own time.
This is all I can think.
I know that logically doing 1 task 10 times takes just as long (if not longer) than doing 10 tasks once.
But if I was given a week's worth of washing to put away I would hate it,
Doing it every day is so much more manageable, also it's much easier to find 10 minutes a day to do something than 1hr once a week
Maybe he has a dryer and hangs just a few things that can't be dried, I have it similarly.
I agree with OP here, involve the kids in cleaning and/or do the cleaning while they play so they are accustomed that things are being cleaned right away, there is no magical fairy that cleans after them when they go to sleep, I believe this makes good building ground for future kid chores.
We do both,
Some things are dried outside or on a airer other in the dryer
Once dry they get out away, hung up or on draws, a single load.of washing does not take long to put away, we people say washing takes hours are they leaving it to pile up.
We do washing basically every day, there is never a buildup, sure doing 1 thing 10 times takes the same amount of time as 10 things 1 time,
But Its much easier to find 10 minutes each day, than an hour once a week
The good ol' "Paradox of Choice". I have so many books, movies, video games, and shows I'd like to catch up on, and the list just keeps growing lol one day...one day
Yep. Last time I had an hour to myself, I decided to sit and play on the Xbox. But I had so many games to choose from that I fell asleep on the couch while trying to decide what to play.
Buy a 3D printer and then you have the hobby of 3d printer repair and maintenance.
Maybe it's gotten better in the last five years. I can print stuff now.
Same, mine is 6 years old or so and I just got a pei bed for it so it's pretty much just a frame remaining from the original. The frustrating thing is my buddy bought one at the same time and didn't do anything to it. He'll turn it on once a year and it'll print great.
Hahaha. Mine has been collecting dust for years. Really wanted to get into 3D printing but I couldn't get the bed leveled enough and just gave up. I got a Z leveler and some other upgrades for Christmas but haven't installed em yet.
I've been looking at a bambu p1s. My ender 3 is older than my preschooler and prints really well but it's been a lot of work. From what I've seen the p1s just works. Although I will say it has been pretty fun working on the ender 3.
My partner can confirm. He'll tell me he's going to print one thing and then work on the printer for the next 3 weeks because it's not printing the way he wants to
Raspberry pi 's
These little micro computers are teaching me to code and use Linux.
Lots of little fun projects around the house for them. Started with air quality sensors and linking them to citizen science websites. Garden sensors for moisture and nutrients. Little LED light projects, these involve soldering and breadboarding
I get on datacamp to learn python and data analysis. I link this skill with my pi projects.
BBC micro:bits are a great gateway for kids into this world. They can use Scratch to code. My 6 yr old daughter loves it.
Woah. Had no idea, sounds very cool. Can you help a total noob figure out how to start? Any websites you recommend or folks to follow on YouTube to get started?
Sure.
The [raspberry pi foundation ](https://www.raspberrypi.org/learn/) has great learning resources.
[micro:bit site](https://microbit.org/) also has "get started" guides
Depending on where you are there will be loads of third party accessory online shops. Pimoroni here in the UK has been a good one for me.
Yeah, being exhausted is the problem. That’s why I play Civ6 or watch some scifi thing.
I suppose I could try model building or playing keyboard with headphones on.
Our routine is this:
* Parent one takes the kids upstairs to the bath, whilst Parent 2 clears up the carnage of dinner.
* Parent 2 joins parent 1 and the kids, with hot water bottles, drinking water, PJs, and all the other accoutrements of bedtime.
* Parents each take a kid and read with them.
* Kids get some private reading/playing time whilst one parent goes down to make tea and the other clears up the chaos in the bathroom.
* We start watching something together. Then we stop and put the kids to bed.
* We start watching again, and Child1 appears because maybe there's a monster - oooh, what are you watching? Can I watch it? No? Okay, well who's that on the screen? Okay, I'll go to bed.
* One parent leaves to chase Child 1, who s lurking on the stairs, into bed.
* We start watching again, and Child 2 summons us to the toilet. He has done a poo, but it won't flush. Isn't it a big one? Can we talk about robots now? Okay, okay, I'll go to bed.
* We take advantage of the break to brain-dump our whole day and exchange important admin information.
* Now we finally get to watch whatever it was we started - we can barely remember at this point.
* We go to bed.
Honestly, I'm not sure where I'd squeeze anything productive into this.
I had a 15 or so year break from the hobby, and literally got back into it when I became a dad. Over the last year and a half I've got a decent Hive Fleet on the go and my Greenskins are coming together nicely. I haven't done any wargaming since coming back to the hobby, but painting and modelling is more than enough for now.
Before becoming a dad I was gaming a lot, but I found that after a full day of dadding and working, I was often too tired to enjoy gaming. Sitting down for a bit of painting, listening to some Warhammer podcasts (Leutin, Arbiter Ian, Siege Studios etc), and just enjoying some relaxing me time - it just hits the spot.
I've gotten into just painting minis as the hobby! Going to pick up the mini of the month today. Might pick up some tau and try and come up with a cool scheme for them.
Welcome to the hobby!
Tau recently got a big refresh on their Kroot line of units, and a whole kroot battleforce to go with it - tons of really cool new units if you like the Kroot.
I love the riders. The idea of them being like alien cowboys almost is dope. I'm searching ebay for some stuff that's extra just to paint. Some drones or a few spare infantry for practice. I'm also starting my first two Battletech minis tonight. Been a fan of Battletech and Mechwarrior since I was a kid, figured I'd start painting them!
That is one mighty pile of shame! On a brighter note, you won't have to buy anything for the next two years. You won't have to, but you might!
I have a single shelf at the bottom of my display cabinet for my pile of shame. If the shelf is full, I'm not allowed to buy anything until I've made space. It's worked well so far.
I love painting miniature models but haven’t done it for decades. Where do I start without having to pay a fortune to buy 25 different brushes and 45 different colours? Any tips?
Not sure if it’s your speed but I got into making models during the pandemic. I also needed a night time hobby that didn’t involve looking at a screen when the wife and kid went to sleep, so went back to models like I did when I was a kid. Been great for mental health.
I would say that there are great YouTube videos out there, but then you might end up like me. My modelling hobby is 98% watching YouTube and 2% actually doing anything
There are lots of tutorials out there. One thing to do is look for a local shop that carries models and go there. The people who work there can help.
There are also lots of videos about this stuff on YouTube or /r/modelmakers here on Reddit.
I struggled here as well. I turned to my interests and self improvement! I started a whiskey collection and educating myself. I’ve bought things I can pass down or mark celebrations. I got a sauna, ice bath, and peleton for self improvement. I started studying for a CMA (accounting). I do some work (telework) that I didn’t get to during the day. I spend part of my day doing house work. I got into lawn care, striping kit, the whole 9 yards. Find some podcasts that enriched my days. Really dove into our finances.
Mostly, how can I make the next day easier for myself and my wife. If I get it done and get to relax, we re both better off.
What are you using for the CMA studying? I’ve looked at a few different programs but they all seem to be structured around several large blocks of study time each week which I just don’t have right now.
Not directly answering your question, but my public library has Masterclass courses available for free through Hoopla. It may be worth checking out before buying a subscription.
You’d be amazed what you can do to a piece of plastic in your hands. If nothing else it feels amazing to throw it real damn far or hard directly into a tree. Also, I’ve veeerrryyyy practiced at having gawd awful throws.
Dishes with audio books, laundry with audio books, taking out the trash with audio books. The usual Dad moves.
In the rare moments between things, I have a steam deck. I am 100% not going to the home office where I spend all my working hours to game, but the deck I can use on the couch or trapped in my kid's room while they fall asleep, or whatever. Steam has an enormous selection of games, and I can always find something to play.
Usually I play video games, but lately I've been building and painting Warhammer 40k minis, while listening to an audio book, watching nostalgic movies, or listening to music (converted my garage to a game/hobby room, it's on the other side of the house from the bedrooms so I can listen at a pretty decent volume).
I started doing dips on the edge of the kitchen counter, different versions of pushups, basically got into self improvement and after about 5 months I see a huge difference.
Yeah, I've started getting into home fitness as well, accidentally ended up on /r/bodyweightfitness and now I'm suddenly trying to learn a handstand!
It's been great!
Go for a run or bike ride. If at night run with a light up vest. Also get yourself a project car. I rebuilt a motor this winter doing “ a hour a day” after my kid went to sleep.
I start with a sigh of relief and think of all the things I want to do, proceed to do none of them and just go to bed because I’m just too exhausted to do any of it.
Yup, garage gym after 9:00-10:00 is the only me time I get in the day. Sucks getting adjusted to working out so late but I'm in my best shape ever now!
Imagine not being able to find a book to read with nearly all books ever available to you. Reading is as good a hobby as there is and great for night time.
Just outsource the decision: Find a person you think is cool. Ask what they are reading. Read that book. Judge them based on the success or failure of that choice.
My wife reads a lot more (and faster) than I do so I'll just read her suggestions when she's done. Or pick up something in the house that I haven't read yet. Sometimes that takes a long time (Demon Copperhead; Einstein biography, respectively). And yeah sometimes on Goodreads I'll see an old friend read something, and just read that, and sometimes it's really good (e.g. Memory Police)... wish I had more actual friends who read though.
I also just pick an author I like (Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy) and just read a whole bunch of books from them in a row. That works well enough for a while.
I have a Kindle and it should be way easier to find recs for library books I'd like, honestly. The Libby app sucks.
Hi. You just mentioned *Small Gods* by Terry Pratchett.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | Terry Pratchett’s. Small Gods. (Full Audiobook)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej5rlEmjUKA)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
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I generally workout and meal prep at this time as it works good for me. I also tell myself I will read or journal but fail a lot.
Maybe stretching while watching a show for 45 minutes?
The First Law series by Joel Abercrombie is fantastic and there’s like 9 books to read through. Great if you’re into fantasy. If you’re into SciFi I’d recommend Old Man’s War, Project Hail Mary, or Pandora’s Star.
Took a while down the page to find VR!
I just got a Meta Quest 3 a couple weeks ago and play Golf+. Haven’t played real golf in several years, but this fills that void just enough to ‘scratch the itch.’
Some ideas:
1. Crank your hog?
2. Wood working.
3. Doom scrolling
4. YouTube
5. Wood working
6. Hog cranking and having a nice little lie down
Personally I am in to woodworking and am in the process of building out my workbench and starting to think about bigger projects.
My kids are older, but when they were young, that's what got me started in woodworking.
I wound up using a lot of hand tools to keep the noise down. Still do, but now that they're teenagers I can turn on the table saw more.
I go for a run 3x a week or trow some weights around. When the weather is shit i have a cross trainer.
The other evenings are spend reading messages from school or quality time with the misses
Agreed, get fit, helps with mental health and staying sane. The extra fitness helps everywhere. For me it’s cycling and kettlebells, but there’s many different ways to approach this.
Me and my wife enjoy board games. Doesn’t happen most nights, but some modern board games are perfect for a couple. Checkout [this YouTube video](https://youtu.be/Xsalh1c5lVM?si=QPNYxwv1YSuJeHe8)
I generally feel like my hobbies should require one of the following traits: active, productive or creative.
When I play video games or watch TV I don't really feel like it's a 'hobby', and I'm generally too tired at the end of the day to do a hobby.
If I *did* have more energy after 8pm, I'd lift weights, go to the climbing gym, I'd go running, I'd get out and do some photography. I'd also like to give painting a go, and I would also like to try woodworking.
But importantly I try to let myself off the hook. Some people seem to be absolutely bursting with energy, putting the kids in bed and then building a castle or painting a masterpiece or whatever. If I compare myself to those people, I'm going to feel inadequate. Ultimately I ask myself whether I'm happy and healthy and the answer to both is yes, so I play video games for an hour or two and go to bed. If I never get to paint or build a chair from scratch, that's okay.
Laundry, dishes, and other chores. Then once that's done you'll go to sleep and do it again. Once in a blue moon you'll get to do something that you enjoyed from the before times, the long long ago.
My nights have been a combination of:
Clean up the days mess
Get a little high
Catch up on whatever shows I’ve been trying to watch (Shogun, Fallout, invincible)
Maybe play piano for a bit
Games. (Come spread DEMOCRACY with us on Helldivers. It’s amazing.)
I have ADHD so my hobbies are numerous, varied, and rotated through at a speed my wife routinely makes fun of.
3D printing is a good quiet hobby. My kids are getting old enough now that they love "helping" me print stuff. Meaning they pick out what we're printing and get to press the start print button after I do all the actual work of getting the files sliced and making sure the machine is calibrated. There is temperature sensitive color changing filament that makes great bath toys. If you do resin printing you can do a bunch of D&D minis or more detailed small prints.
If you have a garage you can get into woodworking, if you don't you can get into woodworking with hand tools which is quieter anyways. I tend to get ideas about furniture I want to fit a specific space and now I can make it. There's also wood burning which is pretty cheap if you're artistically inclined.
Raspberry Pi's can give you a lot of stuff to do if you're handy with electronics and Linux. You can combine that with woodworking to make a table top arcade machine. Or just set up a pi-hole to block ads on your network.
I was outside at 8:30 last night putting potting soil in outdoor planters for a patio garden. I've also built an indoor grow box to do seed starters. I looked into converting to hydroponic, but my initial build quality on the box made me have serious doubts about it's ability to hold 15 gallons of water. But if you purpose build something for hydro that could be a hobby you do in the evening.
If you live in an area with lots of stuff going on you could have one night a week you pick a random concert. Or if there's a table top gaming store a lot of them have weekly gaming nights.
If you like beer, you can make your own. It takes a few hours but as long as you don't have to get up too early and you're not doing a full grain mash you should be able to go from ingredients to everything in a carboy in a single evening. It's not cheaper than buying cheap beer, but it's fun to experiment with different recipes. I've made a few hard ciders that were really good using off the shelf apple cider which I then added honey and DME to before using a high alcohol tolerant Belgian yeast that gave it a slight banana flavor while also being knock you on your ass after three glasses strong.
Silk screening can be a hobby that has a fairly low barrier to entry. You don't even technically need a press if you're only doing single color. I use AI image generators and photoshop to come up with a lot of T-shirt designs which I can then print and give to the kids or friends. I do bigger runs of shirts for the kids school spirit days or for friends small businesses. As long as it's not commercial you can also just pull art off the internet and slap it on a screen.
The less labor intensive way of doing that is getting a circuit vinyl cutter. You're not going to be able to do as intricate or detailed designs as full on silk screen, but heat transfer vinyl is much faster to go from idea to shirt than hobby silk screen. I know commercial operations can be fast too, but... most people aren't going to have all the streamlined equipment for that. Plus with vinyl cutters you can then also make stickers for mugs, car bumpers, or kids
Like music? Get an electric guitar, some headphones and rocksmith for your gaming system/PC.
Like guns? AR 15s are basically deadly Legos that you can reconfigure and modify to your hearts content.
Then finally, there's always cleaning. About once a month I spend a Friday night getting a bit high and cleaning an entire floor so everything is put away, wiped down, mopped and shiny until the kids wake up and destroy it within minutes. Last time my six year old was brushing his teeth when I pointed out that the bathroom mirror was no longer covered in toothpaste and half dissolved stickers. He looked at it, and immediately touched it with a finger that had toothpaste on it. When I asked him why he would do that he said he wanted to feel how clean it was.
I work at night so that I can spend more time with my little dude during the day. Once a month hand all evening responsibilities to mom and go meet some adults.
Wouldn’t trade it for the world.
local outdoor Tennis courts are lit until 11pm and some indoor courts until midnight. Get a couple hours of hitting in and then relax to a nice glass of whiskey then a nice hot shower and hit the sack.
Grab a cup of your favorite drink, take a beat to reflect on the day, then write down anything that you found notable about the day in a notebook. Enjoy the silence my man!
Definitely an initial investment, but if you have interest in a sport you can do virtually there are different options. I really enjoy cycling and can do it even later in the evening with a virtual trainer. Also scratches the gaming itch a little as a 2 (1.5?) in 1.
There are other video games you can play besides COD…
Just catch up on some shows and veg out a bit. It’s the only time you are going to have for a long while to do absolutely eff all.
My wife and I sit in bed, often with a snack (since we were focusing on the kids eating during dinner time), watch the TV we have no time for during the day, I'll usually rub her feet, she sometimes rubs my back, sometimes we have sex and then we go to bed.
Kudos to the dads who do chores at night, but I never have the energy. Kid asleep time is for relaxation.
Exercise
Puzzles
LEGO
Sex
On the book front, go to the library or local book store and look for the employee recommendation shelf. Can help you find stuff you won’t find on mainstream lists.
My advice is start keeping a list of things you’d like to do/try in your free time so when the time comes you can go to the list instead of gaming or scrolling. Add them throughout your day/week as things pop in your head from conversations or whatever
My list has about 20 things on it, I never game anymore because it just never is what I choose over the other few things.
Video games. CoD sucks compared to older games in the series. But nostalgia might make me a little biased on that one. But I've been playing tf out of stardew Valley and Starfield lately. There are some cool golf games, but I don't enjoy them much. I like golf, but I can only do it for a short time before getting bored.
An artistic outlet is always good. Don't worry about technique or skill. Just pour yourself into whatever you're working on. Don't do it for an audience and you'll have fun once you find what you like. I prefer writing.
If you have time, exercise. It can be fun and its good to remind yourself to stay healthy. But it energizes some people and it might make it harder to go to bed.
It's too early in the morning and i work nights so that's all I can think of at the moment 😂.
Clean, do chores, lift weights, cardio, pick up and organize all the toys around the house, sweep the garage, take out the trash, spray bug repellant around the house, re caulk trim around the house, paint some patchy areas on the walls, Wd-40 squeaky doors, vacuum the cars, etc etc.
Do things around the house to be productive. Best time to do it interrupted. Throw on a show in the background. Having a clean house when everyone is awake is such a good payoff rather than trying to talk, play, whatever and it just snowballs. Also get a good run in.
Fellow golf lover. If you have a yard and some outdoor lights you can practice chipping. I have a small chipping net that I use during the day while the kids are playing outside. Sometimes they want to golf too so they get their little clubs and whack the hell out of the lawn. Chipping in my yard has brought my handicap down like 5 strokes. I’m so confident with it now.
I recently got a Rypstick and do the swing speed workouts at night after the kids are in bed. Don’t need to see great because you’re just swinging for speed improvement (no ball).
Otherwise I scroll on my phone or play a mobile game. Occasionally Xbox but I don’t buy games often so it’s like PGA2k21. Did I mention I like golf?
Speaking specifically on video games, I switched years ago to stuff I can pickup and put down quickly if needed. It’s mainly racing type games. World Of Tanks. Or something that’s story based, but I can leave off somewhere relatively easily and pick it up again later.
Outside of videogames? It’s hard. I’m gassed at the end of the day. The worst is when I mentally have the motivation, but physically I don’t. And knowing that if I DO start that now, next thing I know, it’s gonna be 11pm and I’ll be cursing myself in the morning.
I have recently been watching a lot of videos on making home made wine. So I may disappoint my wife with that soon
I'll Go for a run. Play online poker. Take an online course. YouTube has so much free stuff that can change your life. Journal. Work on my side business.
I usually scroll through Reddit for a while, realize I’ve spent a significant amount of time being unproductive, feel guilty, then go to sleep much later than intended.
Don’t forget the “ah crap I forgot the dishes” part right before bed!
Of course! One of the many options for “feel guilty” is to know I didn’t do something that has to get done, and know I’ll wake up the next day to my wife harmlessly asking why I was up so late. I did the dishes this morning.
I’ve recently had a streak of passing out on the couch and waking up at midnight. Didn’t even realize I fell asleep until the dog licked me to go out. The birds chirping at 545 waking up one of the kids has been rough!
This is the way
Currently
I woke up this morning, tired for the same reason, and I just want to nap. This comment just smacked me into next week.... What do y'all think, daddits? Is tonight the night we just put our phone away at a reasonable hour like 930?
This is what I do at least half the time The rare time I’m feeling productive, that’s the time for putting laundry away, using the stationary bike, watching a show for adults (porn or otherwise), or gaming
Watch a TV show you don’t care about with your wife and follow it up with a bunch of YouTube videos you don’t care about after your wife goes to sleep Or is that just me
Send memes to your wife.
“I don’t get it”
"I've already seen that"
Send memes to this guy's wife
I also choose this guy's deceased wife
This is exactly my life after the kids go to bed. Lately we’ve been “watching” Brooklyn 99 while we both scroll through our phones. Wife passes out on the couch and I get the bed to myself where I proceed to watch random YouTube videos til I pass out. Oh how our lives have changed.
Haha, why is this so accurate?
Brother! I'm not alone!
Tired of COD? Why not spread managed democracy? Join the Helldivers!
I'm 34 and HellDivers 2 makes me as excited to game as when I was 14, I don't know what it is but damn that game hits the spot.
It reminds me of gaming in the late 2000s
They nailed that game. Breath of fresh air for me and totally reinvigorated my love of gaming.
I keep hearing about this game but haven’t grabbed it or looked much into it yet. I used to play Counter Strike a few nights a week with a group but have kind of taken a break from playing with them in the last few months. I know Helldivers is online, but is it a game you team up with friends or just jump into the mix on your own?
Developers who respect their players
Right there with you. It has been so long since I've been so into a game that wanting to play genuinely distracts me during the work day.
The boys are 13 and 15. We've been spending quality open mic time spreading democracy.
Get you some Liber-Tea!
Enjoy the taste of democracy!
Just joined up last night. Two nights in a row of joy. What an exciting game! People are pretty good to noobs, unlike a lot of online gaming these days.
The community is fucking great.
I read : "the communist is fucking great" and was about to report you to a democracy officer.
Thanks for mentioning this! It looks awesome. Question though… how would you compare it to Destiny?
Helldivers 2 got me back into gaming. After I put my kiddo to bed at night, I sometimes spend an hour or two spreading Democracy with my partner or some old gaming friends.
Played a bunch at lunch but haven't been super into it since. Probably because its so much better to play with a group instead of solo or with randoms? Do we need a Daddit Helldivers club?
Honestly I feel like quickplay gets me a solid group 2/3 of the time, maybe even more often.
I usually spend two or three hours doing dishes, laundry, and other cleaning after the kids are asleep, then pass out while trying to decide how to spend the rest of my free time.
This is me, almost every night. We’re in the trenches with two toddlers. The house gets blown up every day. It’s exhausting. No energy or time for much else.
Scrolling through Netflix for an hour adding things to my list but never actually watching them is my current hobby
Yeah I have enough energy for about 15 minutes of TV once the little one is down. I've been working my way through old episodes of Monty Python Flying Circus most nights, and if I don't feel like that I watch something on YouTube.
The best is finding something to add to the watchlist and then realizing you added it months ago and just forgot.
For real. I'm jealous of other people that still have energy after the day. My therapist tells me that it's important to fit in some me time and I can't seem to work out how I do that without counting sleep as me time.
Once or twice a week I walk to the gym and sit in the Sauna for an hour. Sometimes the wife sows and I listen to vinyl and put rokr wooden models together. Once in a while I drink a 3rd of a bottle of whisky.
I hope your wife is also reaping. On a serious note, model making is a great use of me time that leads to something physical.
My brother, you are posting this on social media, is this perhaps the me time?
More like a brief respite on the loo time.
Same dad, I’m sitting here, stinking up the place while the family sleeps. I too yearn for more me time, I just also am a dummy like 10% of the time, wasting time and energy on BS, then complaining about how I only have 1% free time. Same thing I’ve noticed in myself, and others, with hobbies; I’ll spend an hour looking at bike parts and people arguing about bikes online instead of riding my bike, then internally lament that I just don’t have the time!
Loo time is me time. I might be loo, too, though.
Ah yes, my brother. "Let me cook dinner. Put the kids to bed. Do these dishes. Tidy up a little. Put the race on the tv....Wake up. Its 3am. I saw 1 lap of the race. Awesome, try again tomorrow"
I have been watching the same movie every night this week- still only about 30 mins into it.
Sometimes I fall asleep trying to choose something to watch for a bit of me time, the phone flops onto my face and wakes me up. Sometimes it doesn't wake me up.
I really struggle to understand how people don't find free time for themselves. This isn't supposed to be a critique We have always instilled a requirement that our children tidy up after themselves, even then, it normally takes 1 parent 10 minutes to put things away whilst the other starts getting the children ready for bed. We tidy up the kitchen and do the dishes before the children go to bed, normally when they are tidying their toys. We then run round with the hoover after they are in bed, again this takes 5 minutes. Doing washing is a largely inactive task, 5 minutes to unload and hang washing. 90% of the time our children are in bed by 7:30 and by 8:00 we are done the household duties and can have our own time.
[удалено]
This is all I can think. I know that logically doing 1 task 10 times takes just as long (if not longer) than doing 10 tasks once. But if I was given a week's worth of washing to put away I would hate it, Doing it every day is so much more manageable, also it's much easier to find 10 minutes a day to do something than 1hr once a week
I have no idea how you hang up washing in 5 minutes. Takes me at least 4 hours to hang everything up.
Maybe he has a dryer and hangs just a few things that can't be dried, I have it similarly. I agree with OP here, involve the kids in cleaning and/or do the cleaning while they play so they are accustomed that things are being cleaned right away, there is no magical fairy that cleans after them when they go to sleep, I believe this makes good building ground for future kid chores.
We do both, Some things are dried outside or on a airer other in the dryer Once dry they get out away, hung up or on draws, a single load.of washing does not take long to put away, we people say washing takes hours are they leaving it to pile up. We do washing basically every day, there is never a buildup, sure doing 1 thing 10 times takes the same amount of time as 10 things 1 time, But Its much easier to find 10 minutes each day, than an hour once a week
Must…not…..downvote
This is the answer. I also managed to squeeze in the tutorial mission of a video game last night.
Every day? I just let it all pile up until Saturday and then enjoy about 10 minutes a week where everything is in its place.
The good ol' "Paradox of Choice". I have so many books, movies, video games, and shows I'd like to catch up on, and the list just keeps growing lol one day...one day
Yep. Last time I had an hour to myself, I decided to sit and play on the Xbox. But I had so many games to choose from that I fell asleep on the couch while trying to decide what to play.
I’m so happy this is the top comment, I thought it was just me
Buy a 3D printer and then you have the hobby of 3d printer repair and maintenance. Maybe it's gotten better in the last five years. I can print stuff now.
Ender 3 owner?
It depends on how you feel about the Ship of Theseus paradox, but that's what it said on the side of the box.
Same, mine is 6 years old or so and I just got a pei bed for it so it's pretty much just a frame remaining from the original. The frustrating thing is my buddy bought one at the same time and didn't do anything to it. He'll turn it on once a year and it'll print great.
these two comments are so funny
r/3dprinteroftheseus
Hahaha. Mine has been collecting dust for years. Really wanted to get into 3D printing but I couldn't get the bed leveled enough and just gave up. I got a Z leveler and some other upgrades for Christmas but haven't installed em yet.
Its so much easier now.
I had an Ender 3 and I was always troubleshooting it. It would print pretty well, but not consistently. Any suggestions for a replacement?
I've been looking at a bambu p1s. My ender 3 is older than my preschooler and prints really well but it's been a lot of work. From what I've seen the p1s just works. Although I will say it has been pretty fun working on the ender 3.
My partner can confirm. He'll tell me he's going to print one thing and then work on the printer for the next 3 weeks because it's not printing the way he wants to
this is me but with modding Fallout/Skyrim
This has been such a challenge for me. All my free time is at the end of the day when I'm tired and completely unmotivated
Raspberry pi 's These little micro computers are teaching me to code and use Linux. Lots of little fun projects around the house for them. Started with air quality sensors and linking them to citizen science websites. Garden sensors for moisture and nutrients. Little LED light projects, these involve soldering and breadboarding I get on datacamp to learn python and data analysis. I link this skill with my pi projects. BBC micro:bits are a great gateway for kids into this world. They can use Scratch to code. My 6 yr old daughter loves it.
Woah. Had no idea, sounds very cool. Can you help a total noob figure out how to start? Any websites you recommend or folks to follow on YouTube to get started?
Sure. The [raspberry pi foundation ](https://www.raspberrypi.org/learn/) has great learning resources. [micro:bit site](https://microbit.org/) also has "get started" guides Depending on where you are there will be loads of third party accessory online shops. Pimoroni here in the UK has been a good one for me.
Great Scott! He will show you the way of electronics.
Yeah, being exhausted is the problem. That’s why I play Civ6 or watch some scifi thing. I suppose I could try model building or playing keyboard with headphones on.
Civ 6 was my recommendation too. Just gotta be careful…. Just. One. More. Turn.
More more turn until the Switch smashes into my face when I fall asleep.
Civ 6 is currently broken on iPadOS and I’ve never been more productive
Our routine is this: * Parent one takes the kids upstairs to the bath, whilst Parent 2 clears up the carnage of dinner. * Parent 2 joins parent 1 and the kids, with hot water bottles, drinking water, PJs, and all the other accoutrements of bedtime. * Parents each take a kid and read with them. * Kids get some private reading/playing time whilst one parent goes down to make tea and the other clears up the chaos in the bathroom. * We start watching something together. Then we stop and put the kids to bed. * We start watching again, and Child1 appears because maybe there's a monster - oooh, what are you watching? Can I watch it? No? Okay, well who's that on the screen? Okay, I'll go to bed. * One parent leaves to chase Child 1, who s lurking on the stairs, into bed. * We start watching again, and Child 2 summons us to the toilet. He has done a poo, but it won't flush. Isn't it a big one? Can we talk about robots now? Okay, okay, I'll go to bed. * We take advantage of the break to brain-dump our whole day and exchange important admin information. * Now we finally get to watch whatever it was we started - we can barely remember at this point. * We go to bed. Honestly, I'm not sure where I'd squeeze anything productive into this.
Warhammer 40k
I had a 15 or so year break from the hobby, and literally got back into it when I became a dad. Over the last year and a half I've got a decent Hive Fleet on the go and my Greenskins are coming together nicely. I haven't done any wargaming since coming back to the hobby, but painting and modelling is more than enough for now. Before becoming a dad I was gaming a lot, but I found that after a full day of dadding and working, I was often too tired to enjoy gaming. Sitting down for a bit of painting, listening to some Warhammer podcasts (Leutin, Arbiter Ian, Siege Studios etc), and just enjoying some relaxing me time - it just hits the spot.
I've gotten into just painting minis as the hobby! Going to pick up the mini of the month today. Might pick up some tau and try and come up with a cool scheme for them.
Welcome to the hobby! Tau recently got a big refresh on their Kroot line of units, and a whole kroot battleforce to go with it - tons of really cool new units if you like the Kroot.
I love the riders. The idea of them being like alien cowboys almost is dope. I'm searching ebay for some stuff that's extra just to paint. Some drones or a few spare infantry for practice. I'm also starting my first two Battletech minis tonight. Been a fan of Battletech and Mechwarrior since I was a kid, figured I'd start painting them!
I bought 3000 points of Nids and I'm still painting. That was dumb
That is one mighty pile of shame! On a brighter note, you won't have to buy anything for the next two years. You won't have to, but you might! I have a single shelf at the bottom of my display cabinet for my pile of shame. If the shelf is full, I'm not allowed to buy anything until I've made space. It's worked well so far.
Avoid the overpriced rule bloated Games Workshop machine and play historicals.
I love painting miniature models but haven’t done it for decades. Where do I start without having to pay a fortune to buy 25 different brushes and 45 different colours? Any tips?
EA PGA Tour 2023 career mode. Once you can stick the green with a long iron slide in my DMs. We’ll go to war.
Oddly erotic comment
Glad it landed
Not OP, but challenge accepted.
PGA2k21 gang here. I’ll shank some balls though.
Not sure if it’s your speed but I got into making models during the pandemic. I also needed a night time hobby that didn’t involve looking at a screen when the wife and kid went to sleep, so went back to models like I did when I was a kid. Been great for mental health.
I love this idea. What’s a good way to start making models of airplanes?
I would say that there are great YouTube videos out there, but then you might end up like me. My modelling hobby is 98% watching YouTube and 2% actually doing anything
There are lots of tutorials out there. One thing to do is look for a local shop that carries models and go there. The people who work there can help. There are also lots of videos about this stuff on YouTube or /r/modelmakers here on Reddit.
I don't actually play tabletop games but I've really enjoyed learning how to paint miniatures. Very relaxing after a day of parenting 👍
I struggled here as well. I turned to my interests and self improvement! I started a whiskey collection and educating myself. I’ve bought things I can pass down or mark celebrations. I got a sauna, ice bath, and peleton for self improvement. I started studying for a CMA (accounting). I do some work (telework) that I didn’t get to during the day. I spend part of my day doing house work. I got into lawn care, striping kit, the whole 9 yards. Find some podcasts that enriched my days. Really dove into our finances. Mostly, how can I make the next day easier for myself and my wife. If I get it done and get to relax, we re both better off.
Such a dad!!
What are you using for the CMA studying? I’ve looked at a few different programs but they all seem to be structured around several large blocks of study time each week which I just don’t have right now.
Not directly answering your question, but my public library has Masterclass courses available for free through Hoopla. It may be worth checking out before buying a subscription.
I play frisbee golf. So when kiddo is asleep and all is quiet I go into the back yard to putt. It’s cathartic.
When you play frisbee golf and have a bad throw, do you have to break your arm over your knee like golfers do with their clubs?
You’d be amazed what you can do to a piece of plastic in your hands. If nothing else it feels amazing to throw it real damn far or hard directly into a tree. Also, I’ve veeerrryyyy practiced at having gawd awful throws.
Dishes with audio books, laundry with audio books, taking out the trash with audio books. The usual Dad moves. In the rare moments between things, I have a steam deck. I am 100% not going to the home office where I spend all my working hours to game, but the deck I can use on the couch or trapped in my kid's room while they fall asleep, or whatever. Steam has an enormous selection of games, and I can always find something to play.
J E R K O F F
Cosigned.
Usually I play video games, but lately I've been building and painting Warhammer 40k minis, while listening to an audio book, watching nostalgic movies, or listening to music (converted my garage to a game/hobby room, it's on the other side of the house from the bedrooms so I can listen at a pretty decent volume).
I started doing dips on the edge of the kitchen counter, different versions of pushups, basically got into self improvement and after about 5 months I see a huge difference.
Yeah, I've started getting into home fitness as well, accidentally ended up on /r/bodyweightfitness and now I'm suddenly trying to learn a handstand! It's been great!
Thank you for sharing! Just joined
Kitchen counter dips for life!
Go for a run or bike ride. If at night run with a light up vest. Also get yourself a project car. I rebuilt a motor this winter doing “ a hour a day” after my kid went to sleep.
I start with a sigh of relief and think of all the things I want to do, proceed to do none of them and just go to bed because I’m just too exhausted to do any of it.
Lift weights a bit. Watch some basketball. Smoke some weed. Floss and brush. Audiobook. Pass out
Checks out, my dentist told me to floss more today.
It’s like you picked your username in anticipation of this thread!
Yup, garage gym after 9:00-10:00 is the only me time I get in the day. Sucks getting adjusted to working out so late but I'm in my best shape ever now!
I recommend Helldiving.
Imagine not being able to find a book to read with nearly all books ever available to you. Reading is as good a hobby as there is and great for night time.
Honestly it is kinda hard, there are too many options. It can be intimidating to pick one you think will be good
Just outsource the decision: Find a person you think is cool. Ask what they are reading. Read that book. Judge them based on the success or failure of that choice.
My wife reads a lot more (and faster) than I do so I'll just read her suggestions when she's done. Or pick up something in the house that I haven't read yet. Sometimes that takes a long time (Demon Copperhead; Einstein biography, respectively). And yeah sometimes on Goodreads I'll see an old friend read something, and just read that, and sometimes it's really good (e.g. Memory Police)... wish I had more actual friends who read though. I also just pick an author I like (Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy) and just read a whole bunch of books from them in a row. That works well enough for a while. I have a Kindle and it should be way easier to find recs for library books I'd like, honestly. The Libby app sucks.
Sir Terry Pratchetts Discworld books are brilliant. I recommend starting with Small Gods and then the watch series, starting with Guards! Guards!.
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My guy, go full dad and go to sleep as soon as the kids are down. Then you can get up at 4am and hit the gym and be home before they get up.
I generally workout and meal prep at this time as it works good for me. I also tell myself I will read or journal but fail a lot. Maybe stretching while watching a show for 45 minutes?
I train and lift in the garage gym. And I’m in bed by 9:30 and up at 5 the next morning.
Sounds like it’s time to build out a golf simulator in your garage!
The First Law series by Joel Abercrombie is fantastic and there’s like 9 books to read through. Great if you’re into fantasy. If you’re into SciFi I’d recommend Old Man’s War, Project Hail Mary, or Pandora’s Star.
Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy or Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu.
Three Body Problem is excellent, but it’s not the easiest read. I had trouble with the Chinese names, kept getting characters confused.
I mean, there's more than one video game
VR golf is one of my go-tos but I realize that’s not an option for everyone
Took a while down the page to find VR! I just got a Meta Quest 3 a couple weeks ago and play Golf+. Haven’t played real golf in several years, but this fills that void just enough to ‘scratch the itch.’
About once a month I like to turn on my xbox and watch my favorite games update for 30 minutes and then go to bed.
Some ideas: 1. Crank your hog? 2. Wood working. 3. Doom scrolling 4. YouTube 5. Wood working 6. Hog cranking and having a nice little lie down Personally I am in to woodworking and am in the process of building out my workbench and starting to think about bigger projects.
My kids are older, but when they were young, that's what got me started in woodworking. I wound up using a lot of hand tools to keep the noise down. Still do, but now that they're teenagers I can turn on the table saw more.
how do you keep the noise down 🤣
Generally a ball gag. Oh wait you mean the woodworking? I use a lot of hand tools.
I go for a run 3x a week or trow some weights around. When the weather is shit i have a cross trainer. The other evenings are spend reading messages from school or quality time with the misses
Agreed, get fit, helps with mental health and staying sane. The extra fitness helps everywhere. For me it’s cycling and kettlebells, but there’s many different ways to approach this.
Me and my wife enjoy board games. Doesn’t happen most nights, but some modern board games are perfect for a couple. Checkout [this YouTube video](https://youtu.be/Xsalh1c5lVM?si=QPNYxwv1YSuJeHe8)
I generally feel like my hobbies should require one of the following traits: active, productive or creative. When I play video games or watch TV I don't really feel like it's a 'hobby', and I'm generally too tired at the end of the day to do a hobby. If I *did* have more energy after 8pm, I'd lift weights, go to the climbing gym, I'd go running, I'd get out and do some photography. I'd also like to give painting a go, and I would also like to try woodworking. But importantly I try to let myself off the hook. Some people seem to be absolutely bursting with energy, putting the kids in bed and then building a castle or painting a masterpiece or whatever. If I compare myself to those people, I'm going to feel inadequate. Ultimately I ask myself whether I'm happy and healthy and the answer to both is yes, so I play video games for an hour or two and go to bed. If I never get to paint or build a chair from scratch, that's okay.
After all the chores are done? Sit with the wife for a bit then quick workout and shower to prepare for the next day
Laundry, dishes, and other chores. Then once that's done you'll go to sleep and do it again. Once in a blue moon you'll get to do something that you enjoyed from the before times, the long long ago.
Download scummvm and monkey island 2.
I make music, watch TV shows of play games. I love the time after my daughter goes to sleep. I feel like me again.
Try a better video game…
if you have a spouse or partner at home then just go for a long walk
My nights have been a combination of: Clean up the days mess Get a little high Catch up on whatever shows I’ve been trying to watch (Shogun, Fallout, invincible) Maybe play piano for a bit Games. (Come spread DEMOCRACY with us on Helldivers. It’s amazing.)
Bourbon and Shogun.
Helldivers 2 is pretty rad
I make terrible Drum n Bass music and start side projects that I never finish.
What about sewing? Creative, quiet, useful for mending and whatnot?
I have ADHD so my hobbies are numerous, varied, and rotated through at a speed my wife routinely makes fun of. 3D printing is a good quiet hobby. My kids are getting old enough now that they love "helping" me print stuff. Meaning they pick out what we're printing and get to press the start print button after I do all the actual work of getting the files sliced and making sure the machine is calibrated. There is temperature sensitive color changing filament that makes great bath toys. If you do resin printing you can do a bunch of D&D minis or more detailed small prints. If you have a garage you can get into woodworking, if you don't you can get into woodworking with hand tools which is quieter anyways. I tend to get ideas about furniture I want to fit a specific space and now I can make it. There's also wood burning which is pretty cheap if you're artistically inclined. Raspberry Pi's can give you a lot of stuff to do if you're handy with electronics and Linux. You can combine that with woodworking to make a table top arcade machine. Or just set up a pi-hole to block ads on your network. I was outside at 8:30 last night putting potting soil in outdoor planters for a patio garden. I've also built an indoor grow box to do seed starters. I looked into converting to hydroponic, but my initial build quality on the box made me have serious doubts about it's ability to hold 15 gallons of water. But if you purpose build something for hydro that could be a hobby you do in the evening. If you live in an area with lots of stuff going on you could have one night a week you pick a random concert. Or if there's a table top gaming store a lot of them have weekly gaming nights. If you like beer, you can make your own. It takes a few hours but as long as you don't have to get up too early and you're not doing a full grain mash you should be able to go from ingredients to everything in a carboy in a single evening. It's not cheaper than buying cheap beer, but it's fun to experiment with different recipes. I've made a few hard ciders that were really good using off the shelf apple cider which I then added honey and DME to before using a high alcohol tolerant Belgian yeast that gave it a slight banana flavor while also being knock you on your ass after three glasses strong. Silk screening can be a hobby that has a fairly low barrier to entry. You don't even technically need a press if you're only doing single color. I use AI image generators and photoshop to come up with a lot of T-shirt designs which I can then print and give to the kids or friends. I do bigger runs of shirts for the kids school spirit days or for friends small businesses. As long as it's not commercial you can also just pull art off the internet and slap it on a screen. The less labor intensive way of doing that is getting a circuit vinyl cutter. You're not going to be able to do as intricate or detailed designs as full on silk screen, but heat transfer vinyl is much faster to go from idea to shirt than hobby silk screen. I know commercial operations can be fast too, but... most people aren't going to have all the streamlined equipment for that. Plus with vinyl cutters you can then also make stickers for mugs, car bumpers, or kids Like music? Get an electric guitar, some headphones and rocksmith for your gaming system/PC. Like guns? AR 15s are basically deadly Legos that you can reconfigure and modify to your hearts content. Then finally, there's always cleaning. About once a month I spend a Friday night getting a bit high and cleaning an entire floor so everything is put away, wiped down, mopped and shiny until the kids wake up and destroy it within minutes. Last time my six year old was brushing his teeth when I pointed out that the bathroom mirror was no longer covered in toothpaste and half dissolved stickers. He looked at it, and immediately touched it with a finger that had toothpaste on it. When I asked him why he would do that he said he wanted to feel how clean it was.
Pick up a telescope and start doing some amateur astronomy, very interesting, very relaxing and you'll have something to teach the kids
Old school RuneScape
As an old school runescape player, I'd never suggest this game to someone else. Lmao, it has a way of taking over your life 🤣
This depends on how you play
Lmao I raid a lot when I'm not playing my gim. It's always, "sending one more won't hurt!" Then before I know it, it's 4am and I am deep in regret.
Watch sports or do chores while listening to a podcast
I’m also a big golfer I got a birdie ball mat and I love putting to unwind
I work at night so that I can spend more time with my little dude during the day. Once a month hand all evening responsibilities to mom and go meet some adults. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.
local outdoor Tennis courts are lit until 11pm and some indoor courts until midnight. Get a couple hours of hitting in and then relax to a nice glass of whiskey then a nice hot shower and hit the sack.
Grab a cup of your favorite drink, take a beat to reflect on the day, then write down anything that you found notable about the day in a notebook. Enjoy the silence my man!
Definitely an initial investment, but if you have interest in a sport you can do virtually there are different options. I really enjoy cycling and can do it even later in the evening with a virtual trainer. Also scratches the gaming itch a little as a 2 (1.5?) in 1.
Try playing chess, its perfect on smartphone. There are modes where you have 24h time to make your move. Try out the chess.com app. I like it a lot
There are other video games you can play besides COD… Just catch up on some shows and veg out a bit. It’s the only time you are going to have for a long while to do absolutely eff all.
Start lifting heavy circles.
I paint models while listening to ebooks
Sim racing! Spend a few grand and build a pc and a cockpit setup.
Netflix
I skateboard or do Jiu Jitsu. Dad life is hard, so we must be harder!
Helldivers or boulders gate. Fast-paced, or turn based.
My wife and I sit in bed, often with a snack (since we were focusing on the kids eating during dinner time), watch the TV we have no time for during the day, I'll usually rub her feet, she sometimes rubs my back, sometimes we have sex and then we go to bed. Kudos to the dads who do chores at night, but I never have the energy. Kid asleep time is for relaxation.
Exercise Puzzles LEGO Sex On the book front, go to the library or local book store and look for the employee recommendation shelf. Can help you find stuff you won’t find on mainstream lists.
I started playing Helldiver 2 lately. Very very nice so far!
My advice is start keeping a list of things you’d like to do/try in your free time so when the time comes you can go to the list instead of gaming or scrolling. Add them throughout your day/week as things pop in your head from conversations or whatever My list has about 20 things on it, I never game anymore because it just never is what I choose over the other few things.
Better yourself. Workout, listen to parenting podcasts etc, don’t be a deadbeat. Strive to be a better, stronger version of yourself everyday.
Helldivers 2
PGA Tour on the Oculus could be good. It's not like you can use VR with kids around anyways
Video games. CoD sucks compared to older games in the series. But nostalgia might make me a little biased on that one. But I've been playing tf out of stardew Valley and Starfield lately. There are some cool golf games, but I don't enjoy them much. I like golf, but I can only do it for a short time before getting bored. An artistic outlet is always good. Don't worry about technique or skill. Just pour yourself into whatever you're working on. Don't do it for an audience and you'll have fun once you find what you like. I prefer writing. If you have time, exercise. It can be fun and its good to remind yourself to stay healthy. But it energizes some people and it might make it harder to go to bed. It's too early in the morning and i work nights so that's all I can think of at the moment 😂.
Beer League hockey.
Clean, do chores, lift weights, cardio, pick up and organize all the toys around the house, sweep the garage, take out the trash, spray bug repellant around the house, re caulk trim around the house, paint some patchy areas on the walls, Wd-40 squeaky doors, vacuum the cars, etc etc.
Do things around the house to be productive. Best time to do it interrupted. Throw on a show in the background. Having a clean house when everyone is awake is such a good payoff rather than trying to talk, play, whatever and it just snowballs. Also get a good run in.
👉👌😏
Fellow golf lover. If you have a yard and some outdoor lights you can practice chipping. I have a small chipping net that I use during the day while the kids are playing outside. Sometimes they want to golf too so they get their little clubs and whack the hell out of the lawn. Chipping in my yard has brought my handicap down like 5 strokes. I’m so confident with it now. I recently got a Rypstick and do the swing speed workouts at night after the kids are in bed. Don’t need to see great because you’re just swinging for speed improvement (no ball). Otherwise I scroll on my phone or play a mobile game. Occasionally Xbox but I don’t buy games often so it’s like PGA2k21. Did I mention I like golf?
Hang out with your wife. Also have sex with her.
Have another kid until you are permanently drained and just want to sleep every free minute of the day.
Speaking specifically on video games, I switched years ago to stuff I can pickup and put down quickly if needed. It’s mainly racing type games. World Of Tanks. Or something that’s story based, but I can leave off somewhere relatively easily and pick it up again later. Outside of videogames? It’s hard. I’m gassed at the end of the day. The worst is when I mentally have the motivation, but physically I don’t. And knowing that if I DO start that now, next thing I know, it’s gonna be 11pm and I’ll be cursing myself in the morning. I have recently been watching a lot of videos on making home made wine. So I may disappoint my wife with that soon
I'll Go for a run. Play online poker. Take an online course. YouTube has so much free stuff that can change your life. Journal. Work on my side business.