> The sleepless nights and diaper changes are a mere blip on the scale of a lifetime with kids. You deal with it, then the kids grow up quicker than you think.

> The sleepless nights and diaper changes are a mere blip on the scale of a lifetime with kids. You deal with it, then the kids grow up quicker than you think. Don't let the idea of the first few months/years define your entire decision for how you want to structure your family for the rest of your life. This is just a common feature of our perception of time not constrained to child rearing. Past years seem to have gone by quickly while the present moment seems to have an eternity in front it. It's also a common feature of our perception to rationalize past decisions as foundation of the current moment ("wouldn't trade it for the world") without really understanding the counterfactuals (are you sure you wouldn't?). Anyway I agree one should generally not let the experience of a few years of hardship detract from a life direction they may find fulfilling, but one should also not take the present for granted or be readily willing to subscribe to a miserable present in hopes that it blossoms into a worthwhile future. We're too bad at predicting the future to make those trades reliably well (though the aforementioned bias will (mis)lead us into thinking we're quite good at it). > You actually like hanging out with your own kids. I talk to a lot of people who are anchored to some negative experience they had 10 years ago babysitting for someone else's kids, as if that was representative of parenting life. It's not at all. At the end of the day, I actually rush to finish up my work so I can have more kid time. It's fun. You shouldn't be so ready to extrapolate your experience to the hypothetical future experience of others who are already skeptical. Your 10 year ago babysitting example sounds like a strawman anecdote. I know plenty of people who simply don't enjoy the company of children, their own included. There is of course a biological propensity to have an outsized affection and enjoyment of one's own children, but that is not universally applied to everyone, and not everyone finds endless joy in experiencing the world through the eyes of a child or playing the role of caregiver. Some certainly do and that's great, but it's not a universal truth.