On: Where Have All My Deep Male Friendships Gone?

> Then we had our first child. I had made the decision to be a stay-at-home dad, with the idea that I’d squeeze in my writing early in the morning and after bedtime.

People without children have no idea how much energy parenting takes, especially in those first few years. No idea.

Being a dog owner (starting from a puppy) was tough. I can only imagine how much more tough it is to have a child.

It's not a good idea to compare children to pets. There is no comparison.

That's why I said I can only imagine.

It’s about the same as having a puppy except instead of a couple weeks it lasts 5 years.

Hah, yeah. I raised a mini Australian Shepherd from a puppy, and naively thought that experience had at least somewhat prepared me for parenthood.

(It didn’t. At all. It’s an insanely wild ride.)

Not all people without children fall into this narrow stereotype.

Don't discount that some people struggle with the object of parenthood more than others. Maybe they'd led a more selfish life, weren't brought up to be yielding, giving, or responsible to others, and their journey required more growth than they'd anticipated.

If they didn't know that they weren't prepared, how could anyone else?

As a younger man, I spent longer than most parents actively raise their children caring for elderly family. A minor difference to child rearing is that when you no longer need you to help your children or change their diapers, it's generally not because they've died.