JayKeeley
Be still, O wand'rer!
I knew I wanted kids at about 23. Bear in mind, I was still single and living alone at the time. 
I even made an inquiry for adoption (this was a time when there were thousands upon thousands of kids being orphaned in old Romania under that Ceacescu dictator). The adoption agency told me that it was hard enough adopting being married in a strong relationship let alone being a single parent. D'oh.
So anyway, left the UK for the US at 28, moved in with my then-girlfriend, Heather, we got married a couple of years later. We'd both already traveled the world over a couple of times so we were ready to settle down. Had our first kid, Chloe, in 2002 and then Sebastian in 2004. Both pregnancies were planned to the nth degree.
One of each and now we are done!
That said, when we see all these natural disasters in the world, like that earthquake in Pakistan, or the tsunami in SE Asia, leaving thousands of young kids orphaned, we have the urge to adopt one. Maybe one day, if we pine for a third, we'll adopt a 2 year old, but for now, we're good.
The wife is cool about me going to metal festivals etc without her (she's ok with metal but I doubt HC, etc is her scene much) so me going alone works well for everyone. It also gives me some time to get away and have a break. (Wifey's used to me traveling anyway since I'm an IT/business strategy consultant for a global management consultancy, and she used to be one herself so there's no surprises.)
Oh yeah, one last point: we timed our kids accordingly, meaning if I was 40 and still without kids, I would have surely given up on the idea. There is no way in hell I would want to be 50 with a 10 year old child. I don't want to be going through my 40's still changing diapers, dropping kids off at pre-school, etc.
I'm actually looking forward to traveling and stuff WITH the kids! The other day, wife and daughter, who's now 5, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. (My daughter is into art and goes to pre-school art academy). I'll probably take both kids to the Natural History this summer so we can start teaching evolution over creationism. And we've already done Sea World and Hawaii.
We also own houses in NY and London so we go over to Europe every other year. In a couple of years, we'll go to other places in Europe so the kids can appreciate all that good historic stuff, like Paris, Rome, and Athens.
I don't know if this all sounds like I'm justifying my situation or anything, hah, but I can honestly, genuinely say that I'm really looking forward to spending more time with my two kids as they get older (and learn to appreciate all the good things in life).
I even made an inquiry for adoption (this was a time when there were thousands upon thousands of kids being orphaned in old Romania under that Ceacescu dictator). The adoption agency told me that it was hard enough adopting being married in a strong relationship let alone being a single parent. D'oh. So anyway, left the UK for the US at 28, moved in with my then-girlfriend, Heather, we got married a couple of years later. We'd both already traveled the world over a couple of times so we were ready to settle down. Had our first kid, Chloe, in 2002 and then Sebastian in 2004. Both pregnancies were planned to the nth degree.
One of each and now we are done!
That said, when we see all these natural disasters in the world, like that earthquake in Pakistan, or the tsunami in SE Asia, leaving thousands of young kids orphaned, we have the urge to adopt one. Maybe one day, if we pine for a third, we'll adopt a 2 year old, but for now, we're good.
The wife is cool about me going to metal festivals etc without her (she's ok with metal but I doubt HC, etc is her scene much) so me going alone works well for everyone. It also gives me some time to get away and have a break. (Wifey's used to me traveling anyway since I'm an IT/business strategy consultant for a global management consultancy, and she used to be one herself so there's no surprises.)
Oh yeah, one last point: we timed our kids accordingly, meaning if I was 40 and still without kids, I would have surely given up on the idea. There is no way in hell I would want to be 50 with a 10 year old child. I don't want to be going through my 40's still changing diapers, dropping kids off at pre-school, etc.
I'm actually looking forward to traveling and stuff WITH the kids! The other day, wife and daughter, who's now 5, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. (My daughter is into art and goes to pre-school art academy). I'll probably take both kids to the Natural History this summer so we can start teaching evolution over creationism. And we've already done Sea World and Hawaii.
We also own houses in NY and London so we go over to Europe every other year. In a couple of years, we'll go to other places in Europe so the kids can appreciate all that good historic stuff, like Paris, Rome, and Athens.
I don't know if this all sounds like I'm justifying my situation or anything, hah,
but I can honestly, genuinely say that I'm really looking forward to spending more time with my two kids as they get older (and learn to appreciate all the good things in life). 
