About six years, for me....quit flying for four years when I was in the Air Force. Didn't start again for a couple years, when I got a windfall from a computer game I wrote and could afford to buy a C-150.
Still have my log book and my entry this week was 40 years after the previoius entry! Last flight I was 18, and I went flying this week at 58. I started the plane right up, took off, and did 2 touch and go's unassisted (with my instructor beside me just in case, of course!). For years, I was a teacher and didn't have money. Then, I started making good money and had no time. No, I have a bit of both, so it's back to the cockpit! 
Great day. Applied for my masters in 2010, got accepted.. Moved to DC.. Didn't want to commute 1 hour to the plane, so we sold it. It is now 2013, we have 2 kids and 1 one the way! Right now, I wish they could add 5 hours to the day for work and family.... So I say I'm taking a break due to time.... but if I had time, I'm not entirely sure I could afford another airplane!
I got my ticket in Sept 2007, with 45 hours in the log book. Flew 4 hours from 2007-2009, was doing 6 months at home, 6 months over seas for work. Then I bought my first plane in 2009. It was delivered the same day my first daughter was born
Darn this topic is depressing...
My dad quit flying when my older brother was born, always thought that was lame growing up. I keep his certificate framed on the wall, as a reminder not to be lame. Dead is better then lame, especially once the kids are old enough to remember you. Don't think to highly of yourself you are replaceable, chances are your wife already has a replacement in mind.
For all the young people, notice everyone who returned finished the private first. Get the license now, coming back without a license is a lot harder and less likely to happen.
Jest aside, this is fundamentally true. I keep reading post after post of people lamenting a mutually exclusive relationship between having children and pursuing recreational flying. Here's the thing. One can make that argument about ANYTHING. Boats, motorcycles, safari expeditions or traveling to South America. It's still a cop out.
The thing of it is one has to establish priorities in life. Is having children the fundamental reason for your existence? If so, then perhaps dumping all your discretionary income on them that your wife doesn't already smoke up, is warranted. But I have a sister, parents that don't owe me anything (if anything, I owe them in gratitude), and about to be a father myself, and I don't find the answer to that question to be affirmative in the least for me. MY purpose in life is defined by the contributions I wish to make society as an individual, not as a parent. As such, it would be counterproductive to sacrifice what drives me as an individual entirely in order to subsidize my spawn.
It really isn't about being negligent or derelict in my pursuit of influencing my children, it's about how my attitudes and behavior as an INDIVIDUAL influences my children. To forego my passion for life in order to afford "everything for kiddo" is self-defeating. I would be heartbroken if my father came to me and told me he had to forego his passion for life in order to appease my existence. Gladly he didn't. He traveled, he met interesting people, he became involved politically in the causes he felt strongly about, even when that meant being gone from home. He managed to find a balance and still influence his children to become productive tax-paying members of society.
Sack up. Tell the wife she don't get everything she wants in life either. Establish a balance. Influence your children by example, not by exclusivity of attention. And if that means don't have 3 kids, then guess what? Have less kids. What's next, opting not going outside because I might get hit by a bus and the spawn will see a reduction in their material lifestyle? Jesus H people.
Stop lamenting the lack of flying on the kids, that's weak sauce. Unless you child is special needs and put you on the medical bankruptcy house, that's a weak excuse for not having the fortitude to live your own life with a sense of purpose.
..and yes, my wife approves this message.
) goes on, it's getting a little clearer to me. It really, truly is HIS TURN.
