This week we take on the thorny problem of the boundaries that we need to build to protect our family lives.  Getting the other adults in your life to take your kids seriously can be hard.  Not the children themselves, as individual human beings, but their needs and the responsibilities they give you as parents.  Popular film and TV like to perpetuate the idea that when a friend gets married, you’ve lost that friend forever.  But substitute “Having kids” for “Getting married”, and it actually becomes kinda true.  We change when we become parents, and it affects our relationships and our priorities.  The people we leave behind don’t always understand what’s changed, and expect you to continue giving them the same amount of time and affection as before. In this episode, Allen and Cathrine talk about some of the problems this causes, both socially and professionally. We don’t have a lot to offer by way of solutions, but since you’ve probably been made to feel like a bad friend, or been told to be more of a “team player” by your boss, perhaps it will help to learn that you’re not alone! Postscript Every now and then you’ll hear a baby grumbling in the background.  We apologise for this because we know how distracting background noises can be in an audio recording, but since we’ve just been talking about how our kids are top priority, we thought you’d understand if we kept the baby near by while we recorded! Cathrine mentions Meatball Night.  She’s referring to the modern tradition of Friday Night Meatballs, and one day when we move back to civilization, we are definitely and absolutely going to make it our own.  Good food, socialising with adults, meeting new people AND not needing babysitters.  I can’t imagine anything better!