No post body was provided.
Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
1–10 of 54 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#2No.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#3I'm curious as to what the context here is.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#4My child is an interesting person, who I am glad to know, and whom I am proud to have influenced to become what she is and will be.
I never wanted kids until I met my wife, but now I'm happy she talked me into the idea. Our child has made our lives better and stands a pretty fair chance of having a good life on her own.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#5No. They’re hard work, and consume a lot of your time, but they’re awesome. Especially during the pandemic when we’re shut in the house so much of the time, they bring laughter, energy, and change to the house daily (my kids a young so developing fast).
I know his articles often land to mixed reviews, but this one resonated with me a lot: http://www.paulgraham.com/kids.html
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#6Don't have kids so no direct experience but I read the book Everybody Lies which looked at google search trends and was just fascinating and I do think mentioned that many people actually do regret having kids (and also a lot of women wonder if they're male partners are gay). So, if you regret having kids, you're probably less alone than you think!
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#7Not at all. I have three now-adult children. Children can give structure and purpose to life. Raising children is not for everyone and it’s a big responsibility. Anecdotally very few parents I know regret having children, but I know a few who admit some regret, often expressed in terms of missed opportunities, which sometimes sounds like selfishness.
My mother had seven children. She once told me that every one of her children reminded her of mistakes she had made (in hindsight). She didn’t regret or resent her children, but she did regret the opportunities her children may have closed off for her.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#8No. I was very nervous about it before I had kids, but I’m very glad I did. It’s not always easy raising them, but it’s also not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and it’s much more fun than I imagined.
FWIW being around other people’s kids isn’t a good proxy for what having your own will be like. With other people’s kids you see a lot of the more challenging stuff (managing them during “grown up” activities), and miss most of the fun, which happens more in the quiet day to day.
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#9No, but the fewer pandemics we go through, the better. This past 15 months has been tough!
Re: Ask HN: Do you regret having children?
#10No. However, the person I was before having kids no longer exists and isn’t coming back. I think people unprepared or unwilling to accept this will possibly regret having children.