Why did you have kids?

[glatt]

I always thought I would be a dad, so it was just a forgone conclusion. I think it's hardwired into me. There was no philosophical discussion about the pros/cons of bringing offspring into the world. The only question was "are we ready yet?" Making the decision to actually do it now was a little like building up my courage to jump into cold water from a cliff on a hot summer day. I was nervous, maybe even afraid, but thought I would probably like it once I made the plunge. And I did.

We were in our early 30s when we made the decision, so we had already done the young married couple thing for several years. Had been travelling a lot. Had bought a house. Saved some money. We had seen the world, and now we were ready to settle down and be a family.

Make no mistake about it. Kids absolutely change everything. Your old life is over once the kids arrive. Some parts of that really suck. You can't just do the things you want to when you want to. You always have to be thinking about the kids. This is the part where the parent says "But it's worth it, because my kids are such a joy." I was always a little doubtful before I had kids that this was true. I figured that the parents were just trying to delude themselves. But it's true for me. The kids are great, and I'm glad that my old life is gone and I'm living this one. It's a good life, even if I was up for an hour last night at 2AM because my toddler can't pull the blankets back on him in the middle of the night and fights me when I try to do it for him.