>>149534189Tycho and Buckley have described the impact of parenthood in an eerily similar way. Tycho said that "children carve something out of you", while Buckley said it's like "[taking] a piece of our heart out of our chests".
Having children means both gaining and losing something. You lose things like time, energy and money. You gain new perspective and purpose. The losses are frustrating for anyone who values his personal freedom. People with high ambitions will find it particularly hard to juggle both a career and a family without one of them suffering.
Personally, I hit a point where life without a family felt empty. I was aware that having a kid would mean facing all sorts of unknown challenges for the next 18 years and even beyond that. But the idea of remaining childless to the end of my life felt far more distressing than the idea of confronting the perils of parenthood.