44M, married 22 years, 5 kids. Work from home most of the time (bad idea!) Few hobbies or friends. I have been lurking on the RP subs for a while now and casually read a few books; I'm finally starting to get serious. The MRP and TRP sidebars are gold.

Step 3 of the 12 levels of dread is to start building a life distinct from your wife. I'm a Scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts and have been for several years. I run a troop of 30ish young men, ages 11-17, mostly on the younger side. Recently I've been thinking about dropping that, and would appreciate your insights.

Pro:

  • Opportunity to build up a new generation of men. (Some of my Scouts have little or no solid masculine influence in their lives - this is the closest thing I have to a mission beyond my own family.)
  • Gets me out of the house for our weekly meetings and our monthly campouts.
  • Hiking and camping are masculine activities; it's better than sitting at home watching Netflix
  • Opportunity to lead the other adults who help out with my troop.
  • Some (minimal) social interaction with other adults
  • Increases my status in the community somewhat.

Con:

  • I stopped loving this a couple of years ago. It's just another thing I have to do. I don't even like camping much.
  • My Scouting responsibilities stress me out sometimes and that makes me into a whiney frameless baby.
  • It takes a lot of time - time I should be spending on my work, with my family, or on myself. (Or maybe that's just an excuse for my own laziness. It's hard to be that introspective. I am not convinced that if I dropped Scouts, I would replace it with anything worthwhile.)
  • My own sons have pretty much dropped Scouting in favor of other interests.

I would appreciate other opinions insights.