I Rediscovered a Hobby and Everyone Survived, Actually

If I had to rank them, I would say my top two hobbies are reading and sewing. The third hobby would probably be thinking about the effect that Vanderpump Rules has had on The Culture. But for the purposes of this essay, specifically, we will focus on the first two. 

After having kids, hobbies have taken a back seat in my life. I’ve been able to keep up with reading as a hobby in large part thanks to audiobooks. It is much easier to listen to an audiobook while folding laundry or cleaning a bathroom or being up with a kid during the night than to make time to sit down peacefully with a nice hardback. All moms know this. And that’s been fine, really. 

Sewing as a hobby has been harder to keep up with. With exceptions for a few projects here and there, my sewing machine sat collecting dust in my closet. See, sewing is actually mostly cutting things with sharp scissors and blades, then using a very hot iron to press, and then using a fast moving needle to put it all together. And this, you understand, makes it harder to do around small children and their grabby hands. So this hobby, like the machine, also collected dust for a long time. And that has also been fine, really. 

A couple of months ago I found myself looking around my house on a Saturday. My kids and my husband were enjoying their weekend, playing and watching TV and relaxing. All I could see were the chores I had done that already needed doing again, along with the seemingly never ending list of ones I hadn’t gotten to yet.

 I’ve long struggled with the idea that my responsibilities and must-do-tasks need to all be complete before I can make time for my leisurely pursuits. I could probably blame this on being the firstborn eldest daughter or my diagnosed OCD or my anxiety that I will forget something important and let someone down, but no matter the root cause of this core belief, it has sort of ruled my life. And I didn’t really realize the extent to which it has affected me until recently.