While I agree that they do drain you in some ways, they are also great career boosters. I've been with a single company long enough to observe many of my colle

While I agree that they do drain you in some ways, they are also great career boosters. I've been with a single company long enough to observe many of my colleagues get married and/or have kids. Even the ones who decided to have kids late, after having been married for 10+ years, I see big changes in their attitude, and for the better. Notice I said, kids are 'career boosters', but not 'motivators'. While having kids do boost your career, it's not necessarily because they motivate work harder or better. By having kids, you actually become more risk-averse, but you become more shrewd, able to relate to management more, and also forced to utilize your time better. All these help you climb the rank. Ultimately though, quality of your work will decline if you're trying manage people AND do the work too. It's hard to do both, and I think that's the problem this guy is having. He needs to pick his battle.