Quality vs. Quantity

Like many dads who are not involved in the lives of their children everyday, I struggle with the time we do have and hurting the same children we are trying to protect. Recently my son was approached to play in a fall baseball league, he was very excited to be asked. We discussed this at length, and I am struggling with the decision. If I agree for him to play, I will miss a lot of our time together, since he will practice on Saturdays and play tournaments on weekends. This could lead me to seeing him only sparingly. If I do not allow him to play because of these reasons, he views me as someone stopping him from doing something he really wants to do. This is the familiar "no win" situation non-custodial dads are always placed in.

How do we rationalize these issues? How do we allow them to do some things and still not miss the valuable time we have with them. In trying to look at from his view point, I relented and allowed him to attend the tryouts. I am not sure what will become of it, But if he makes the team, that will mean that I will have to travel A LOT and see him significantly less. We talked about this in detail, and he understands my concerns and I think he understands how important this time is to me, I can only hope that in years to come he will appreciate this sacrifice.

There is no right answer to this, you have to do what you can and what you think is right for your individual situation. But in the time we will have we will have to make the most of it as best we can.