Nothing gets easier as you get older, kids or not. You just get better.
This is true for entrepreneurship, and kids.
Kids are the closest thing to experiencing actual magic.
It’s the most stupefying technology you get to witness every day. Everything I write here won’t explain this but I’ll try anyways.
Late nights, pushing, juggling, constantly learning is something entrepreneurs do and transfers well.. but maybe not as common as it should be. Learning how to learn is a highly transferable skill.
There’s also not knowing what you don’t know until you get into it.
I’m a first time dad to twins. It was like waking up a part of myself when I didn’t know I was asleep. It’s hard to wake up someone who doesn’t know they’re asleep.
There are some interesting biological changes that open up in your brain, energy and other things after having kids, not just for the mother but the partner too. Fun research and reading for your interests, but it literally activates more of your brain. I see a new world of more opportunities and understand people better than ever have.
Super helpful in building product. I had no idea what the experience of many people are and it helped me simplify even more what I build.
To my earlier self I’d say..
Kids were not as much of a shock because of the fun stretches of startups I’ve been through, and all the interests I’ve been through in the past.
Having kids helps cut off any unnecessary entanglements, especially ones we’re not aware of.
Theres a chance to finally prioritize better than ever. The decisions make themselves, it’s a super power.
There’s a chance to become a morning person to have even more time.
There’s a chance to think about problems away from a keyboard that has build up the mental muscles again.
There might not be a better motivator and creator of discipline than having kids. Instead of scrolling motivational insta.
It’s true it can be hard work. 1 kid is nothing compared to having twins. I could do 1 kid in my sleep alone, but it’s only because I had to expand to the demands of twins. That’s what parenting does for some, increases their capacity.
Yes there can be late nights if you choose not to learn and put in routines.
There’s a chance of realizing what kind of memory you will be for your kids might be more important than you ever thought.
The mental cpu cycles aren’t that bad. There’s pretty good books and apps now (wonder weeks is one) that keeps things on the radar. Knowing your kid is going to have a growth week before they do is so helpful. You don’t feel as helpless.
My wife and I weren’t sure if kids would be in the cards for us, between life, work, our interests.
We did pretty much everything we wanted including sleeping in until we got bored of it.
We said to ourselves if we’re not 1 million percent sure we don’t want kids we should leave the door open or try for a family to be sure. There are some health issues before we began that were discovered that likely saved my wife’s life. Life seems so random, and then not it seems sometimes
Rather than have a fixed mindset in our 20s of having kids or not and hanging onto it for dear life we tried to stay open to possibility. I really recommend it. It turned out we’re not the same people in our 20s that we are in our 30s. Knowing is delusion sometimes, yet it’s all we seek.
You can change and grow - many things you believe turn out to be a bookmark to go open up again and update. It’s everything.