We've made our lives around a "kids first" policy since they were born. We run our own business (together) and consistently and deliberately put this second to

We've made our lives around a "kids first" policy since they were born. We run our own business (together) and consistently and deliberately put this second to our children. We know it's going to hurt in a financial sense later - we are very much living for now, knowing that the eldest who is 14 may be leaving home in 4 years and the youngest who is 12 will be off in 6. We're in a fortunate situation, in that the work we do is profitable and relatively low stress, but we also make decisions frequently that keep our work in balance. For instance, we could grow and take on employees, but have chosen not to; we consistently say no to new work even if it's hugely profitable if we know it is going to impact on holiday or family time - or our sanity! Kids seem to me to be the single, unequivocally most important thing in the world. Creating them and nurturing them is after all what evolution is solely interested in. Making a new generation who is loved, balanced, ready to step out into the world on their own - this is, and will always be, more important to me than work. The subtext - and it's a really important one - in the article, is about the empowerment of women. This is horribly unbalanced; for biological, social, whatever reasons. This is broken, and women get a terrible deal: this needs addressing. But at the heart is just being with your kids and loving them, and for me that means putting work second. I should also just add: actually, we put us as a couple high up in importance too. Too many people forget this when raising children: you need time to be you and to be a couple, and it's easy to forget this after years of nurturing kids!