Thread by @gbrl_dick

i know i’m always saying this, but parenthood really is deeply fulfilling and full of joy

https://twitter.com/s8mb/status/1809849711882338462

this week has probably been one of the “hardest” since my son was born — he’s 18 months old and the whole family has come down with a pretty nasty flu.

he’s really sick, which is horrible on its own, but he’s also very congested which makes it hard for him to sleep well

plus my wife and i are a little lower on energy than we’d usually be because we’re sick too, and juggling work and other responsibilities around looking after ourselves and our baby

but, if anything, this description way overplays how hard it feels on an hour-to-hour basis

our baby is in pretty good spirits considering how sick he is — first thing he did on waking up this morning was ask me to take him into the kitchen and make an omelette with him for his mother

and now he and my wife are at the park kicking the football around so i can get some work done. she just sent me a video of him laughing at her attempt to kick the ball into the goal (the swing set)

there are a bunch of decisions you can make as a parent that make it easier (usually at the cost of focus or flexibility in other areas of your life) — but this is also true of every other area of human endeavour

i think sometimes about what it would be like if the conversation around work/career was conducted like the children/family conversation — you would sound kind of crazy

anyway i think the main thing is like

having children is wonderful and you should probably do it

like everything that matters, it’s worth really putting some thought and planning into how you do it

the more effort you put in, the more you’ll get out

it will sometimes be hard