> In my experience caring for your small children is really demanding work. On the one hand you need to be focused on the situation in order to protect the children
I expected this going into having children, but I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it. Yes, it’s more active work than sitting in front of a computer, but for me personally I’ve found it much less demanding than my jobs.
> and on the other hand there is not much going on for entertaining yourself.
Honestly, I don’t identify with this either. At least not since my children were more than 6-7 months old. Playing with kids is a lot of fun once you get into it. We go on a lot of adventures around the neighborhood and beyond where everything is new and exciting to them. It’s like they’ve re-opened the wonder of the world for me.
On the other hand, I have some friends who struggle with parenting because they approach it more as babysitting than as quality time with their kids. For them, it’s just a matter of passing time until they can go do something else. That’s a minority of my friends, though.
My big discovery was I underestimated how different kids could be. I watch some two year olds happily draw for hours, and lay themselves down for nap. Meanwhile, mine possessed a natural talent for destruction, boundless energy, and refused to sleep more than about eight hours a day.
well, if you can't get excited over seeing the same hedgehog again and again (which would be a comparable experience to having a pet) then you just have to pick something else. the challenge is to find things that you and the kids enjoy. and i sympathize. this can be hard.
I expected this going into having children, but I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it. Yes, it’s more active work than sitting in front of a computer, but for me personally I’ve found it much less demanding than my jobs.
> and on the other hand there is not much going on for entertaining yourself.
Honestly, I don’t identify with this either. At least not since my children were more than 6-7 months old. Playing with kids is a lot of fun once you get into it. We go on a lot of adventures around the neighborhood and beyond where everything is new and exciting to them. It’s like they’ve re-opened the wonder of the world for me.
On the other hand, I have some friends who struggle with parenting because they approach it more as babysitting than as quality time with their kids. For them, it’s just a matter of passing time until they can go do something else. That’s a minority of my friends, though.