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Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and we just worked a little less than when she wasn't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in small periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.

Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and we just worked a little less than when she wasn't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in short periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow up, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.

Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and we just worked a little less than when she weren't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in small periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.

Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and we just worked a little less than when she wasn't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in small periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.

Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and just worked a little less than when she weren't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in small periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.

Every child is different, as Matthew said, but as a rough approximation expect that raising children is a full time (24 hours a day) job for years or decades.

Caring for a child is great, but trying to do it while doing anything else is often very challenging because children want/need your attention. You can be lucky but you need to be ready to deal with any other situation. For example, I could bring my daughters to my office; with the older one it went fine for more than a year and we just worked a little less than when she weren't there, but when my younger daughter was in the office at least one person had to stop working to be with her.

The same is true for any other activity you want to pursue with children around: cooking, reading, enjoying a film, working... and sleeping.

The first months are the worst for the sleeping issue. It's often said that it takes until the child get used to sleep all night, but I'm afraid that it takes until parents get used not to sleep - or to sleep in small periods. It becomes less a problem when children grow, but it may take a lot of months, and even when children are a few years old they can often have bad nights that need attention.

That said, having children is great if that is what you want, but expect to do it instead of whatever you do now, not in addition to it.