With my first child, I didn't slow down. I was racing regularly, and on my bike 4-5 days a week. Training rides after work Tues-Thurs, and racing or training both days on the weekends, was my typical schedule. I was self-absorbed in my passion for cycling, and ignored all the signs that it was a problem. It wasn't the only factor - but definitely one of the factors - that lead to my wife asking for divorce before our daughter was 2yo.
Second wife...followed by a second child. Up to that point, being a shared-custody dad meant I had plenty of training time. I had been racing for 12 years, had some fun success as a Cat 3 (including a State Champ title), and had been upgraded to Cat 2. At the end of the season, however, I hung it up. Completely. I learned from my previous mistake, and didn't want to repeat it. I had also come to the point where my motivation to keep pushing my body was fading. I put my focus on being a dad and a husband, and shifted my hobby energy to something I could do (mostly) at home - playing music. As my younger daughter grew, she got into playing softball, and I set music aside to take that journey with her. I shifted my energy to learning about the game, and spent a few years as a team coach, until the coach-daughter relationship started getting strained. I got off the field, and settled into to just being a dad, watching his kid do awesome things in her sport. In the last few years of that 10-year softball journey, I was significantly overweight, and starting to see some troubling health numbers. I figured out how to get back on the bike in the small slivers of time between family/softball demands. My daughter - 15yo at this time - didn't need so much hands-on time, so time windows started opening up for me to ride. However, in her 10 years of playing her sport, with and against some of the best players in the country, I never missed a single game, including a multitude of out-of-town trips. Some times of the year didn't allow much time to ride, others did, and some weeks were better than others, too. My fitness grew, my fatness shrunk, and I got back to the point where I could ride with my friends who didn't take a break from riding.
My older daughter is 23, and recently gave birth to my first grandson. My younger daughter is 18, and away for her freshman year of college. I'm on my bike 4 days a week, and starting to feel pretty darn good. However, I have zero regrets about taking a break from it to focus on my family.
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"Swedish fish. They're protein shaped." - livedarklions