What's the point in having children?

[arcaneguyver]

OT - I would say the reasons and rewards for having kids is not logical, but emotional. And as such, it can be really hard to justify it with words. I would liken it a bit to explaining how cool a VR game is in plain text to someone who hasn't tried VR before because of the high price associated with it.

VAMatt - I'm eight month in to this kid thing, and it is something of a rollercoaster. There is so much to learn, and nobody can fully prepare you for it. Every time you think you've "figured this out," something will change (often the very next day) and you'll be back to square one. From what I hear, this trend continues on at least for the first year. You'll have to give up on playing any of the modern-day 40+ hour open world epics, maybe stick to playing quick and simple titles where possible. I even started playing some mobile trash out of sheer desperation - I almost want to say you're better off just not playing video games than messing with that crap.

- Initially the newborn will eat at what I considered an inhuman rate, a little bit every 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Their stomach grows out of this quickly, but your sleep will be super ****ed.
- Babies don't smile until about 6 weeks, and the only way they communicate is crying. May not sound like much, but they can come off as like the most needy and ungrateful boss. When that first smile comes in though, you won't forget it.
- Trimming the baby's finger nails is a bitch, but if you don't they'll scratch their face. Early on your best bet is to use a nail file rather than clippers.
- Sleep is the hardest thing to get for both parent and baby, for many reasons. Baby sleep is interrupted easily by design - hunger will wake them up so they don't go malnourished. Babies practice physical skills at all times, even in their sleep, meaning they can and will roll into the crib sides. Just setting them down to sleep is difficult - instinct says predators can get us if an adult isn't holding them while asleep - so you gotta learn how to put them down in the crib just right so they don't wake up. Oh yeah, the hospital will drill into your head that sleeping on the back is the only safe way for infants to sleep, but if your wife sleeps on her side, the kid probably will too initially, and that's totally fine. Once the kid starts rolling onto his/her stomach, you can ignore the back sleep thing entirely.

This parenting thing is no joke, but seeing your child develop and experience new things is satisfying.