> And if I’m struggling, as someone who’s not burdened by having children to take care of or even not having the most demanding job or hours to make ends meet, I have no idea how others manage to have a curious mind and succeed the way they do.
Parent here. Raising children has a way of making you more efficient. In my pre-child years there were days where I could putter around and relax because I knew I could make up the work later in the evening or even a weekend. Or at least that’s the lie we tell ourselves in the moment.
Post-kid, things come into focus. You learn how to do the work now whether you feel like it or not, because the price for doing it later becomes much higher.
I also was misled by all of the internet comments about how parenting and raising kids is awful and everyone secretly hates it despite their fake happy social media posts. After having kids you realize you actually like your kids and want to spend more time playing with them. That alone is motivation to get work done now so you don’t have to sacrifice the valuable kid time later.
It’s hard to explain until you get there, but I’ve talked to many other parents who went through the same growth phase. I’ve also caught up with some (not all, some) of my old friends from high school who were academic superstars but who did not have kids, and it’s remarkable to observe how some (again, don’t flame me, not all) of them are stuck in the low motivation/low effort loop and cite that as one of their reasons for not having kids. To each their own, but I for one am glad I ignored the internet/Reddit rhetoric about how kids are an impossible burden that will only make your life worse.
Also, having a kid is great to get you to learn new things. I want my son to learn to play an instrument, so I've finally been taking piano classes because I know that very few children of completely non-musical parents actually succeed in learning to play instruments. Learning piano has been a lot of fun, I have a blast playing simple things with him (he's still young) and learning some of my favorite music.
Likewise, after reading "Math from Three to Seven: The Story of a Mathematical Circle for Preschoolers", I've been having a lot of fun getting back into Mathematics because it's fun doing things like this together.
Parent here. Raising children has a way of making you more efficient. In my pre-child years there were days where I could putter around and relax because I knew I could make up the work later in the evening or even a weekend. Or at least that’s the lie we tell ourselves in the moment.
Post-kid, things come into focus. You learn how to do the work now whether you feel like it or not, because the price for doing it later becomes much higher.
I also was misled by all of the internet comments about how parenting and raising kids is awful and everyone secretly hates it despite their fake happy social media posts. After having kids you realize you actually like your kids and want to spend more time playing with them. That alone is motivation to get work done now so you don’t have to sacrifice the valuable kid time later.
It’s hard to explain until you get there, but I’ve talked to many other parents who went through the same growth phase. I’ve also caught up with some (not all, some) of my old friends from high school who were academic superstars but who did not have kids, and it’s remarkable to observe how some (again, don’t flame me, not all) of them are stuck in the low motivation/low effort loop and cite that as one of their reasons for not having kids. To each their own, but I for one am glad I ignored the internet/Reddit rhetoric about how kids are an impossible burden that will only make your life worse.