> I don't think I'm necessarily having the same experience as you.... my advice to people who aren't sure if they want kids, is DON'T. It's bloody hard, you sac

> I don't think I'm necessarily having the same experience as you.... my advice to people who aren't sure if they want kids, is DON'T. It's bloody hard, you sacrifice A LOT. Don't have kids unless you're very sure it's what you want. That's one perspective. I wasn't ready for kids but had one anyway. It's worked out fairly well. My kid rocks and we have a lot of fun. > have 2 kids under 6 and I feel like I just don't have any time for any of my hobbies any more. I leave for work first thing, come home in the afternoon, and haven't had any time for myself until the kids are down at 7.30, and I'm utterly wasted. I have one and I started to get back into hobbies around their age 7. So I would imagine having two slows that process down a bit. I'm pretty sure you'll get some time back, but you might need to stick it out a couple more years. If you can, tweak your hobbies to include them a bit (obviously it depends on the hobby) - mine really liked synths for a couple of years: that was great fun :-D. Something that hit me hard recently was that when I do my hobbies & socialising, I do them away from my family. This now looks like a mistake. I think I should have worked harder to have kid-compatible friends and hobbies over the last couple of years. I'm aiming to do more more activity stuff (camping, surfing etc) with mine over the next couple of years. Deeper into their teens, they wont want to hang out with me much so I need to get it done now. > As for enjoying hanging around with kids It's really hard. You've got to get into undirected play yourself. I didn't do this enough.