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It's not impossible. Is it harder than if you didn't have kids? Probably. But then we also having aging parents, our own health issues, bumps in the road, divorces, marriages, laundry to do, meals to cook etc. /1
You can't divorce being a person with a life from being a scientist. And saying that adding kids to the mix is the one thing that makes or breaks you isn't rational IMVHO. Institutions that don't help or accomodate can break you. /2
People assuming that being a parent makes you less of a great scientist can break you. Funding agencies that ask for things that have impacted productivity (like incubating a small human and giving birth to it) but then don't actually take it into account can break you. /3
People deciding that you have to do science, teaching and service exactly as you would if your life wasn't complicated by (kids, parents, illness, etc) else you don't deserve the job, will break you. /4
What is needed is support and accommodation, and some of those aren't that difficult. 1) Don't schedule meetings or seminars before 8:30am or after 5:00pm. Daycares don't run on academic time. 2) Spread service evenly in your department/University among all faculty. /5
3) All universities should provide daycare at minimal cost or highly subsidize it if it isn't offered. 4) If you do offer daycare, make getting slots there fair and equitable. Don't do once a year lotteries or some such crap. Not everyone has babies at the same time. /6
5) Recognize that maternity leave isn't just for physically having the baby. It's for baby brain, the odd things that happen to your body and immune system, the unexpected depression that can pop up. These are things that impact your ability to speak in clear sentences. /7
6) So if someone has maternity leave - let them recover! Don't assume this is just some nice extra time to do more work. It's extra time because you likely can't work at the pace you were before. (And don't get me started on why paternity leave isn't equitable.) /8
We want different brains with different creative skills to bring their gifts to science. But to do so, we have to get out of the mindset that there is only one way to be a great scientist - ie work yourself into the ground with no attention to anything else. /9
Accommodations are there to allow everyone equal opportunity, not equal outcome. It's about equity, not equality. And if you need a reminder as to what that is see below: /10 
Everyone is dumping on the original poster for his tweet, but I'll recognize he was brave to say aloud what many people think. This attitude is highly prevalent in science. We need to counter it by supporting each other and our trainees to have families and do great science. /x
