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Dad didn't avoid being a workaholic to spend time with the family though. He tinkered on other projects with his time off. I tend to do the same thing; fixing broken irrigation or something instead of playing with dolls with my daughter. When I spend time with the family, it's usually something I want to do like go for a drive, or take the canoe out on the lake, or ride bikes.
Most families have a much higher income than Dad because the breadwinners achieve something above an entry level job sometime in their working careers. They own newer cars that don't need to be worked on. They take vacation with the family because they don't have to work on cars and have some disposable income. My dad stopped working at about age 55 when offered 2 years salary to retire early. He never got a job after that, which isn't good considering older people tend to be at more risk for health problems and need the insurance provided by employment.
I won't speak for others, but there's no way I would accept the excuse from my dad that he wanted to spend more time with the family (and he'd probably be fairly honest about why he didn't achieve much in the way of a career). Certainly he wanted to tinker. If he were wise he'd have leveraged his tinkering ability in the labor market. He'd have made an awesome maintenance man.
I'm fortunate to have fallen into a career field that leverages a significant enough portion of my interests to make a better living. I could and should make a lot more though by really being honest about how I use time and how I could best leverage my interests and ability. I've got the same aversion to holding authority as my dad, and I suspect that's because we're more aware than most of the responsibility it requires.
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