Thread: AAARGH!!! Where do you find the time??

Tweet

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I want to ask it again . . .

Where do you find the time to build props?

I'm the father of four girls (oldest will be 15 in August and the youngest turns 2 in a week). I spend a lot of time at work, and I spend a lot of time helping my wife juggle the girls just so we can make it through each day. It feels like every day just gets away from me. By the time the girls are home from school and I make dinner, then server dinner, then fight with the littles (our nickname for the 4 year old and two year old) to get them in the bath and then into bed, my wife and I just want to relax a bit and enjoy some peace and quiet.

I wish I could say I find time on the weekends, but my wife works on Sundays, so I'm usually taking care of the girls and it's hard to find things they all want to do so that I can sneak off to the garage and work on something.

If that's not enough, the few times I can find some time, it's an hour here or two hours there. It's hard to get in the mood, or figure out what I can get done between other household tasks or parental responsibilities. (Even now, I can hear our 4 year old throwing a fit because she wants to play with something the 2 year old just ran off with.)

There are some nights, I send my wife up to bed and then go out to the garage or bring a small project into the living room so I can tinker and watch late-night tv. A guilty pleasure, to be sure, and I usually pay for it the next day.

So, once again, how do you find the time to produce such beautiful and creative props?

Sleep? Who needs sleep?!

I have to say that sure does sound like my life! (minus 3 of the girls - our daughter is just turned 6) I totally agree with you that time just gets eaten up by so many other things it's really hard to find the time and energy to get anything major accomplished. I have so many ideas in the ride to and from work or during the day but like you say by the time you get home and everyone's in bed I sometimes just don't have the energy to start anything. Before I know it summer is over and it's crunch time again.

Im 42, and I have 21 and 17 year old boys. I must admit, I didnt have the time either when they were little tot's... It was all the things you mentioned above until I realized there was no more little league / football / karate / science fairs/ band competition, ect., ect. to go to. I did have a little Halloween fun with them growing up, but not at the level i'm wanting to be at now. I wish I had a solution for fitting it in with the little ones, but all I can say is before you know it, they are all grown.

I don't have any kids & still have a hard time doing anything, but for me it's not just time but motivation.

I get home from work & I don't even wanna make dinner let alone work on something. Then this time of year there's outside work to be done not to mention the usual stuff inside like cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. Plus there's just the thing that sometimes you just wanna do something fun like take a day trip somewhere, go to the movies, etc. Or just do nothing like veg in front of the TV for a day.

Just remember you don't have to do it big for it to be impressive or remembered. You don't need a house & yard full of stuff, do ONE thing well, or a few little things well & you will be fine.

I know exactly what you are talking about! It is so hard to find the time to build anything. For me, I work at night on the props after our 3 yr old is in bed. It seems like that is the only time I can make any progress and the house is actually QUIET. I can get into the mood and sort of just unwind from the day. Like you, I sometimes pay for it the next day! Otherwise, I try and scrape the little bit of free time I have to do a little bit here and a little bit there.

yeah, getting sleep is definitely put on the back burner when projects get going.

This is funny because my hubby and I were just discussing this last night. I just found this forum and am very excited! I was so excited to share with the hubby all of the fantastic things all you talented, beyond talented people are doing, building, I see so many things I want to do, but we have 5 kids ages 4-11 and 2 are special needs children and they keep us on our toes. Between kids and work it can be pretty hard. The hubby does not seem as excited for Halloween this year and that kind of burst my bubble. I do see his point though. We have had a lot of vanadlism and theft of our things so we have to do ALL of our set up in 2 days and just that is exhausting!!. We do not get to enjoy it the whole month and put up cutesy stuff through the month! We go CRAZY for Christmas also and last year they really destroyed quite a few items we cant get anymore...and we have surveillance cameras 24-7, doesnt stop them. They just wear hoodies and stay in the shadows. On the night of Halloween as soon as the last person leaves it is all dismantled and put away before we can even relax. I add new things every year and really want to be more hands on with props, but time and enjoying our labor are a problem!!

Originally Posted by TK421

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I want to ask it again . . .

Where do you find the time to build props?

I'm the father of four girls (oldest will be 15 in August and the youngest turns 2 in a week). I spend a lot of time at work, and I spend a lot of time helping my wife juggle the girls just so we can make it through each day. It feels like every day just gets away from me. By the time the girls are home from school and I make dinner, then server dinner, then fight with the littles (our nickname for the 4 year old and two year old) to get them in the bath and then into bed, my wife and I just want to relax a bit and enjoy some peace and quiet.

I wish I could say I find time on the weekends, but my wife works on Sundays, so I'm usually taking care of the girls and it's hard to find things they all want to do so that I can sneak off to the garage and work on something.

If that's not enough, the few times I can find some time, it's an hour here or two hours there. It's hard to get in the mood, or figure out what I can get done between other household tasks or parental responsibilities. (Even now, I can hear our 4 year old throwing a fit because she wants to play with something the 2 year old just ran off with.)

There are some nights, I send my wife up to bed and then go out to the garage or bring a small project into the living room so I can tinker and watch late-night tv. A guilty pleasure, to be sure, and I usually pay for it the next day.

So, once again, how do you find the time to produce such beautiful and creative props?

Maybe you're looking at things the wrong way. You don't have four kids who take a lot of your time, you have four workers. I have three kids, and I got all of them involved in making props by asking them for their opinions on what we should do and how we might go about doing it. I usually don't act on their ideas for how to do somthing, but they're usually right on what we should do, and since they're acting on their own ideas, they don't see what they are doing as a chore.

We make a making props a family event and it's worked very well over the years.

Its all about micro-management of one's life and the time we create. Other than that, basically the time-frames between the weekend yard work/household maintenance and dinner.

I to have a wife, a 4 and 6 year old who I spend most of my free time being a husband and father to. This leaves little time to devote to our hobby. The exception is at work during the day. I use that hour for lunch the best I can to get things done for Halloween. I am fortunate that our office lets me use a portion of the mezzanine in the warehouse to store some supplies and set up a small work area. Outside of lunch hours I, like so many others sacrifice sleep to get things done. Occassionally when the grandparents come to visit my dad asks if we can work on something togather and my mom helps cover my resposnsibilities so I take a day to get some sort of animated character up and running.