Great first post and many interesting observations since!
I can relate to this situation on a few levels. I first started taking photos about 1974 as a teen. It came naturally, though no one else in the family that I interacted with regularly was a photographer. I was given my grandfather's old Kodak box camera and his old negatives, and my first adventure was to make blue sun prints. After that I used the family's Instamatic to shoot 126 Tri-X, which I developed and contact printed in my own little darkroom.
Then came high school and the yearbook, then shooting and writing for the local paper, college and the yearbook and other photo adventures, teaching photography at a college, doing freelance weddings and portraits, shooting for a dot-com in the late '90s--eventually it got to be a bit much!
At the end of the '90s, after a relocation across country, I got a higher-ed IT position (which I still have) which combined computer lab maintenance with oversight of the photo studio. I took to the computer just like I once did to the camera, and spent more time with computers and software than I did with actual photography. In fact, it was seeing a student's digital camera several years ago that got me back into shooting (now 100% digital). Since then, I could say my work has been better than ever before, even though I gravitate to more artsy stock-type/fine art work than the photojournalism and wedding stuff I used to do.
So what you need is a spark of some sort, or a new perspective, or a streamlining of interests--a prioritizing of goals. As you mention, it can be daunting and discouraging to climb the learning curve that each new camera or software revision presents. I personally have just about every software product currently available for digital imaging, art, 3D and productivity (for promotional purposes), and while that sounds like a good thing, it is actually like the kid with too many toys--you can't really enjoy the special ones because of the overwhelming abundance! At this point I have to learn to use each package just enough to be able to create screenshots and examples, but naturally (due to being spread thin) I am a master of none of them.
But thankfully I can keep it fresh and keep the interest up. When I get tired of image editing or page layout I can do some 3D terrains (I'd use Painter or Studio Artist more but I can't paint!). In your case, play a little piano, shoot a little (without worrying about your level of equipment), play some tennis on a rotating basis. Discover the particular thing that really captures your imagination and focus on it. And learn from your kid along the way! ;-)
PS: I sometimes think, "I wish I could shoot/design/etc. like so-and-so", but there's really no point in that. They're not trying to emulate someone else, they're being themselves, and that's what makes them unique! So each of us needs to do our own thing.