Other comments notwithstanding: how does a new parent find time for this???
Down-time is precious precious precious. Either catch up on sleep, or relax as best you can. For me personally, consumption has largely taken over from creation which I am not sure how I feel about but its working so far :-)
There might be depression and increasing anger, once you realise the kid is still needy and your partner is now occupied with #2.
On a more serious note, for me consumption at this point in my life is a vicious cycle that does not make me a happier or better person - yet the circumstances keep pushing me towards it.
> 2: in effect : VIRTUALLY —used in an exaggerated way to emphasize a statement or description that is not literally true or possible
I said the baby requires attention for 30hrs a day. This does not mean it receives that much attention, rather that a prerequisite to it making it through the day is 30 [person-]hours a day, indeed split between a few people. One person entertains, the other washes bottles, etc.
Tbh as a parent of 2 kids I barely have the time to write HN comments, I’m positively surprised how coherent it is in the first place...
On the other hand, a crib is a particularly annoying piece of furniture to build. First, it has to be able to break down, so that is an engineering challenge if you don't have experience with that. Second, it is a particularly monotonous thing to build, especially if you go with spindles all the way around. Cutting, sanding, assembling and finishing ~50-60 spindles is a lot of very boring work. So you may have dodged a bullet on that one.
It is great if you're able to build some things yourself. But the kid and in particular your partner need your hands on deck, not on the workbench for days on, just to end up with an unfinished crib. And there are so many other, more important things to do that cannot be outsourced that easily.
And once the first kid is in the house, expect interruptions. Oh, kid has a "mild reaction" to a certain vaccination? Forget sleep, forget "stuff that needs to be done", survive while keeping the basics in order. And with more than one kid expect to be on call for every minute you are home. Nothing can go by uninterrupted if you have small kid and a toddler and only four hands.
I envy everyone that has a different experience. Grandparents/relatives help a lot. COVID-19 does not.
Projects suddenly need to be small or non-critical.
I put off building the crib until my son was 4 months old expecting to be able to finish it in 2-3 weeks. It took over 8 weeks and by the time it was done it was at least 1-2 weeks overdue. And a lot of the work was done between 10pm - 2am when everybody was asleep, which took away from my sleep!
I'm still glad I built it (now that it's done!), but yes, outsourcing it certainly would have been the correct choice.
But not everyone uses a crib right away — we do a combination of bassinet and co-sleeping with our ~4mo. Probably time to still build that crib if woodworking is your down time
Edit: though my wife would never have gone for an idea like that, she got the nesting bug pretty hard
One fun exception I had was building a climbing frame in our garden, with a swing and slide. Took literally days, had to reorder parts, go shopping for tools.
But, it was just before lockdown, and even playgrounds were closed where we live, so in the long run it was a life-saver.
It helped that I did it when the granny came to visit...
If there are any pending parents reading this, get all those outstanding things done now.
"We'll do that once baby is born" - nope! Get the nursery set up as best you can, get the buggy/stroller unpacked and assembled, get a stockpile of nappies/diapers, fix that broken light switch or dripping tap etc, get the car serviced and the tyres changed etc.
If you have any side-projects (or even games you are playing through) on the go, get them to a good place where you can stop and leave it for a while. I had grand ideas of continuing to hack away at some projects - even if it was just 15-30 minutes at a time - but of course like everyone says there is no time for that. I should have tied things off before baby arrived so things were neat and tidy (i.e. not in the middle or some epic refactor or juggling a bunch of PRs that need to be merged etc), left myself some notes, and then come back to it in 6-9 months when you get a bit more time again.
There wont be time when baby arrives. Good luck! :-)
More of a philosophical question, but from my POV if you're spending time implementing this, you're not valuing your time enough. For the creator (Fabio), it's arguably time well spent: define a problem, use your creative muscles to a functioning solution, document it and show the world your creation. All well and good.
Tinkering to implement Fabio's solution, now that's where I see it being low-value usage of your own time. There's an opportunity cost to it; you could be spending time finding your own problem and creating a solution you could display.
I'm talking things like boiling water before making formula, sterilising bottles and dummies, installing and then looking at baby monitors, feeding baby at regular intervals (even in the middle of the night), making the latest "Montessori" toys and cloth nappies, etc. etc.
Anything that helps us fruitlessly burn ourselves out to the point that quality time with our newborn is seen as yet another problem will be welcomed with open arms.
this is for someone that has idle brain cycles while babysitting. (and possibly can't go anywhere and has a pi nearby)