There's carefuly thinking things over and preparing yourself, then there's living it. Raising a child is like skydiving, or sex - we can talk about it/visualize it until we're blue in the face, but until you leap out of that plane, or leap into that bed, you have no idea what you're talking about. I was in love with my daughter the moment I saw the doctor pull her out of my wife's abdomen, but I knew within weeks she would be an only child. Just don't have the patience/energy for another one. I thought seriously about giving her a sibling once in the last 9 years - only once. To put it another way: I became a father once. I've gone skydiving twice, and would go again in a heartbeat (polite society dictates we not talk about how much sex I've had). The stress of parenting makes jumping out of airplanes look like a day at the spa.
And I second the notion that one cannot compare pets to kids. It's all subjective, sure, but the attention and energy I've had to give our cats over the last 17 years is maybe 2% of that required by the daughter in the last 9. And that's a generous estimate.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 05:07 pm (UTC)And I second the notion that one cannot compare pets to kids. It's all subjective, sure, but the attention and energy I've had to give our cats over the last 17 years is maybe 2% of that required by the daughter in the last 9. And that's a generous estimate.