I had 3 weeks during this summer when I was with my 5yo at my parents house. My parents took care of their grandchild and he was happy to just spend time with them. I didn't have to cook, take care of groceries or do any house chores that normally fill my day up. I could just work, so I did, for 10-12h a day (usually it's about 7h).
I had trouble with sleeping basically from the day one. I was constantly thinking about one more optimisation or bug fix I can apply to make the feature I'm working on better. I lost interest in my normal evening activities (movies, books, games). I had been looking forward to spending these 3 summer weeks at my parents' for a few months before, but I made it quite stressful, by my own wish.
I learnt that taking care of the kids and doing the house chores is something I really need to keep myself sane. Doing it I often wait for the evening, when I can just chill out - but it's hard to relax if you don't do anything else than hitting keyboard for the whole day.
what i sense here, and i felt that too, is needing an excuse to relax. like being able to tell my boss: i'd love to work more but i have to take care of the kids. once you realize what is going on you can work with that more constructively, at which point you'll be able to relax without needing an activity that you didn't choose yourself. you can and should of course continue these chores, but those too you'll be able to do with more deliberation and awareness of what benefits they give you.
I had trouble with sleeping basically from the day one. I was constantly thinking about one more optimisation or bug fix I can apply to make the feature I'm working on better. I lost interest in my normal evening activities (movies, books, games). I had been looking forward to spending these 3 summer weeks at my parents' for a few months before, but I made it quite stressful, by my own wish.
I learnt that taking care of the kids and doing the house chores is something I really need to keep myself sane. Doing it I often wait for the evening, when I can just chill out - but it's hard to relax if you don't do anything else than hitting keyboard for the whole day.