I came to say the opposite! Before kids you can get out of a funk by taking some random vacation to middle of nowhere, taking a sabbatical or random time off work, spend an uninterrupted day at the library, whatever. Once the little ones come along you get about five minutes per day to solve your problem.
I find that the more I focus on my problems, the stickier ennui is. It is specifically being forced to solve other people's problems that slackens its grip and allows for escape.
Agreed, but when you're forced to solve the same person's same problems day after day after day after day after day, results on your own psyche can vary.
I appreciate this answer, it sounded facile at first, but hints at a significant ambiguity when calling something 'my' problem. You are absolutely correct that my daughter's problems are my problems, but their motivation and the manner in which they must be dealt with are fundamentally different from the rumination that causes [me?] ennui.
Taking a fundamentally trite example: my daughter wants a pencil so that she might draw. Fundamentally, she's not concerned about me solving the 'pencil problem' utterly, for all time, but rather wants one 'now'; that is, ideally within ~30s but definitely within ~5 minutes. There is no time to dwell on the merits of STAEDTLER vs Caran d'Ache, or whether I should be provisioning a set focused on soft or hard lead, or a lifetime supply of Ticonderogas. Instead, you find the first one that you already have around that has a reasonable chance of keeping its lead intact long enough to allow her to finish her doodle and move on to the next thing.
So yes, I agree with your premise, but I also argue that the problems you inherit by proxy are materially different from the ones I [at least] find cause ennui.
