Thanks for writing this—I’m really happy to see people both celebrating the compatibility of EA and having a normal life, and talking about kids and careers.
I will say that I think the types of things that are challenging depend a lot of how much family support you have, what country you are in, and especially, the age of your kids. My oldest is now 10, and for example, while the difficulty of travel greatly decreases as kids get older, the set of responsibilities and the time it takes to deal with kids varies a lot, both with age, and depending on the kid. But overall, I find that younger kids are much more physically draining, and older kids require much more emotional labor. (And I don’t even have teenagers yet!)
But overall, I find that younger kids are much more physically draining, and older kids require much more emotional labor.
This is my experience as well (oldest is 12).
I often say that while small children aren’t easy, they are simple. While it seems it should be easier to fulfill the needs of older children if you know what they are, it’s much harder to figure out what the right thing to do is in the first place. I have a lot more doubt whether I’m doing right by my oldest than when she was small.
Thanks for writing this—I’m really happy to see people both celebrating the compatibility of EA and having a normal life, and talking about kids and careers.
I will say that I think the types of things that are challenging depend a lot of how much family support you have, what country you are in, and especially, the age of your kids. My oldest is now 10, and for example, while the difficulty of travel greatly decreases as kids get older, the set of responsibilities and the time it takes to deal with kids varies a lot, both with age, and depending on the kid. But overall, I find that younger kids are much more physically draining, and older kids require much more emotional labor. (And I don’t even have teenagers yet!)
This is my experience as well (oldest is 12).
I often say that while small children aren’t easy, they are simple. While it seems it should be easier to fulfill the needs of older children if you know what they are, it’s much harder to figure out what the right thing to do is in the first place. I have a lot more doubt whether I’m doing right by my oldest than when she was small.