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8pm on a Wednesday: A Story of Parenting, Purpose, and Perspective

It’s 8pm on a Wednesday evening.
This is a day where I awoke in the 5am hour, exercised, walked my dog, returned home and began the morning routine with my middle school aged children.
By 8pm, I am walking the dog for his nightly constitutional and keeping an eye on the lights around the practice field. You see, my daughter plays for a club lacrosse team and that means I am at the whims of scheduling. The coaches secured the 7:30–9pm time on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
It would be easy to say no. It would be easy to say that I have something better to do with my time. I could say it was a school night and it’s unreasonable to be walking the dog and watching practice this late. I need rest, my growing 6th grader needs a reasonable bed time.
Yet I am here. She is there. We are going down this road.
Fast forward to 6 or 7 years from now. My youngest, the lacrosse player, is not a 6th grader anymore. She is getting ready for her senior year. She is planning on going to school somewhere (hopefully all of these sports have lightened the burden of paying). My wife and I will be on the precipice of being empty nesters.
A Wednesday night at 8pm will look a lot different. I will be older. My children will grown…