I was wondering how many of you get grief from your spouse about hobby time. I worked on some SuperTrees today. Took about 3 hours all together. I worked the entire Labor Day weekend (10 hours shifts). Previous Thursday, I spent in the local ER with our sick 26 years old daughter. The day before, I took my wife on a 90 minute (one way) drive to a local North Carolina winery for a tasting and lunch. Worked the previous 3 days. Today, I here that all I do is work on the layout!![:S] Then, I am told that I should be in a better mood after working on the layout. I was until those comments.
Well, my question to all of you is, how much time in the average month, do you spend working on your layout? I agree and have always put the family first. But, I would like to make some progress on the layout from time to time. With any luck, I will post a few photos (in the next mouth) of my version of the mountains of West Virginia in October, 1957.[;)]
I used to get a lot of grief from the wife about modeling but it came from her hobby (sewing) being crammed into the train room because of dead beat house guests (more than 1 year). They are finally gone and my wife has her sewing room back and things are 100% better. I also am fortunate to work 40 hours in 3 days (2 x 16 hours and 1 x 8 hour) so I am able to model a lot during the work week while the wife is at work. It is amazing what you can get done in 4-5 hours of modeling with no one else in the house.
I don’t get to spend much time working on model railroad related items at home but I try to get a couple of hours a week in working on the club layout. Wife doesn’t give me much grief about anything model railroad related but I can’t say the same thing for everything else in life[swg]
Nope, she supports my hobbies. She does a lot of running around on weekend with the daughter and her mother ( she likes it anyway) so i don’t go shopping etc. but I do most of the cleaning so i take care of the cleaning and when i get free time thats ok with her whether its my carving ( which she enjoys what i do) or my train stuff.
Corey
P.s. but i would definitely take time out for a wine tasting… i love that!
She is the one that pointed out “the train room” when the new house was being built, after our fire. (Never had a train room before). Unfortunately, her mother and both our sons have used it, the second son lives there now. If I had had the time to finish it in between somewhere, maybe there would be trains there.
I have a TV with a VCR/DVD player next to my work bench, outside my little room downstairs. She can watch her bloody, who done it’s and I can watch a ball game, movie or mr instructional things. She does work 12 hour nights, so many evenings she’s not here.
I set up a budget, though the money has been used for other things, I know how much I have “set aside” for my rr, if I really wanted to make a “purchase.”. She travels to a friends weekly to satisfy her horse fix (probably cheaper than a horse), takes the friend south in the fall and goes after her in the spring. Also has a couple of other things she spends time and money on, so we both have something.
I’d say she was quite supportive and somewhat interested, though not involved.
She shakes her head whenever I sheepshly tell her I’ve exceeded my hobby budget on something (as in, whenever I spend anything on trains, since my hobby doesn’t actually have a line item in our budget). That having been said, she’s very aware of my need to escape the pressures of work and kids and the overall daily treadmill, and fully understands the therapeutic value of my trains. Sometimes she’ll actually encourage me to “go work on trains.”
Now, I don’t get a lot of actual modeling done each week. Most often I go to the basement after the evening’s must-get-done list has been addressed and end up falling asleep at my desk… [zzz] But it’s still all good.
I have an awesome wife who knows I am a big kid. I have no kids in the house, and I probably spend about 30-40 hours per week working on the layout. I have an awesome job so the “finance committee” gives me a generous allowance for “train stuff”.
All that said, be advised that my 1st wife hated all of my hobbies, and was constantly giving me grief…that’s why she is now the “ex” =D.
Though not sharing my interest, my wife very much approves of my hobby and does not complain at all, should I exceed my time budget working on my layout. I appreciate her judgment on scenes I created, which is a big help for me.
My wife is very supportive as she has her hobbies (weaving, soap making, jewelry making) and she does not have to wonder what to buy for my birthday, Christmas, etc. Also, my mother-in-law has purchased some nice train gifts for me and asks how the layout is going. I guess some of us just live a blessed life.
My wife is very much in favor of the layout and from time to time does projects for me that go on the layout. She does roll her eyes at times when a big box is dropped on the front porch by Post Office or UPS, but she has always been favorable to the hobby.
My wife encourages me to spend time with the trains. Of course, my layout is in one of our living rooms with both computers and one of our TVs. It’s actually the room that gets used the most other than the downstairs living room with the big TV and surround sound. She frowns at the money spent sometimes, but I think she sees it as a good investment in my sanity. Besides, with her in the same room as me, she can keep an eye on me! Oh my gosh, I just figured out why I “get” to play with trains. I’m being distracted!
I get grief sometimes. Somehow, she gets the idea that if I weren’t working on (or playing with) the trains, I’d be all kinds of excited to help her with gardening, or yardwork, or decorating. That’s just not the case. I have to remind her sometimes that I work 5 days a week (she doesn’t) and when I’m home, I’m more interested in my hobbies than hers.