Well, time does change, and so are our priorities in life as you said. We might be gamers and love playing games, and when someone loves games, they also love watching others play on streams and videos and stuff, we do that all the time until we get married and have a family to take care of, that is when a full stop is added to your activities that you used to have before because you don't get enough time for yourself and your activities that you once loved.
That's how life is, it gets difficult at times but it also gives you pleasures sometimes, it's a total rollercoaster that never stops and you keep going up and down and sideways sometimes, even if you want it to stop sometimes, but the control is not really in your hand so you have no option to stop it.
It is important that people learn to adjust their behaviors to their new circumstances in which they are in, gambling can be without a doubt an incredibly exciting activity, however the same can be said about raising your kids as everything they do has the potential to become a memory you will never forget, so if at some point you find yourself in a situation in which you cannot gamble anymore you must not despair, and instead accept those new challenges as they may offer you a completely different sense of excitement.
Very well spoken my dear friend, first, I will like to address this, being a father of two myself, I can tell you with a guarantee that, the excitement of gambling can not be compared to that if raising kids, raising kids is more exciting for me, at least, most of the time..
The excitement derived from gambling very much depends on the situation of the game and the mindset of he gambler, some one who while gambling, have centered his or her mind to winning alone, it's hard for such person to be excited while in loss and hoping for a win.
And again, yeah, one must not force him or her self into gambling when and if they really don't feel like it, the negative emotion already from not feeling like to gamble can lead to losses if the gambler forces him or her self.