Hi Paul,
I understand where you're coming from. We've got a 2 1/2 year old and although for the first year and a half maybe it was a bit more difficult, it's a lot easier now.
Re following Pompey (commiserations, firstly
), I would have thought that going away to somewhere up north for an away game is as long a day as flying to Belgium or somewhere.
For me the weekends are a toss-up between following Tottenham and flying (weather permitting). The disillusionment for me has come with my football club, so that always gives way to any flying that occurs. I can't fly and go football on the same weekend (agreement with the Fuhrer). Having said that I only have about 100 hours and haven't been abroad yet so I still have a wide range of airfields to land away at.
But I also get your 'what else is there to do?' point. You hire, fly somewhere, maybe get a bite to eat and fly back. Great. Then what? It does feel as though there's little other purpose sometimes and once you've done it you feel like there should be something else to it, and doing the same thing will quickly become a bit dull. Have you considered getting a CPL and doing some ferry flying or supplementing your job with some part time paid flying work? That could provide some interest to you.
Whatever you do you can come back to flying so if you feel the time is right to take a break then do it, raise your child, then who knows, you might want to get back to flying sooner than you think.
It's like missing a home game after a bad run of results, you think, 'sod it I can't be bothered with this', then when you miss it, you wish you were there...
Good luck