Adam and his boys

by Adam, Central Coast, California

I am a (Organic Green) daddy of two boys, a six (and a half) year old and a two year old. Both are very demanding and require a lot of attention. For the six (and a half) year old Little League season has just started and I am one of the head coaches for his tee ball team. He’s in first grade and it seems like his load of homework equals mine of fourth grade. Luckily I have my wife to help out; she does the writing part while I prefer the math and reading. There are also the organic lunches we make for him because the school lunches just don’t cut it. The two year old has preschool 4 days a week for an hour and a half. My job is a little less demanding than my wife’s so I’m there for two of those times while my mother-in-law makes it to the other 2. He must be paid attention to and played with while my older son is doing his homework.

With all this going on I have a full time job at an engineering firm here on the Central Coast and I do part time work for another engineering firm. I’m also studying for the test to get my professional engineering license. On top of that I just upgraded to the newest version of AutoCAD civil 3D and I’m learning the functionality of that while still getting all my work done.

Then there are the everyday things that we all have to do: dishes, laundry, making dinner, paying bills, cleaning up, shopping, staying up with the latest news and sports, working out, and not to mention down time to relax and enjoy my wife. All this while still being green and organic.

While attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a senior I thought I had it bad. I was taking on my senior project, I was the secretary for the club Society of Environmental Engineers, I was on the Student Fee Initiative Committee, I had my full load of classes, and I had two part-time jobs. I’d like to think that all that responsibility I took on prepared me for now. Of course, back then I didn’t have a family to take care of and the well being of my kids to worry about. All I had to worry about was making sure I ate and slept enough to get me through the next day.

I’m not going to pretend that I know the secret to making this all work. I just know that what matters most is that my children are healthy and receive the physical and mental nurturing that they need. It doesn’t happen all at once, there’s planning and prioritizing that goes into the things that we can control. There’s also taking care of the things that come up that we can’t control. I like to make a mental checklist, my wife likes to have things written down, and we end up talking and discussing small tasks throughout the day to get it all done. Granted, not everything gets done when we want it done, but it all works out in the end. Our children are happy, healthy, and educated in the way we believe benefits the environment and the world.