10 Guys on What Changed the Most After They Had a Kid
1. "I remember noticing really early on, maybe even while we were still in the hospital, how our family dynamic had shifted. Nothing against my wife, but I didn't think of us as a 'family' as much as I did a 'couple.' But once our son was born, it really felt like we were our own unit separate from our extended families on either side." -Kevin, 31
2. "I learned to really relish my free time. I don't want to sound like a horrible dad; I love spending time with my children. But since they come first, you're obviously doing a lot of what they want to do. It's easy for me and my two-year-old to sit and watch Disney movies together. I can't take her out on a bike ride. Before kids I used to procrastinate and drag my feet before going to the gym. Or I'd spend a day lying around. Now the few hours of free time I have every day are jam-packed and laser-focused." -Darren, 30
3. "The weirdest thing for my wife and myself to adjust to was the fact that we were in charge of our daughter 24/7. We felt pretty used to kids as we would babysit our nieces and nephews fairly frequently. But with our daughter, for months, we'd have moments where we'd realize, 'This isn't babysitting. It's parenting.' Or we'd turn to each other at night to say there's our baby sleeping in the other room. I guess the word I'm looking for is the 'permanence' of it. It's a nice feeling, but it's weird." -Evan, 34
4. "We had sex more, at least in the beginning. It gets tough once your kids are old enough to potentially run into a room at a moment's notice. But I think because my wife and I didn't get as much 'private time,' we stopped taking it for granted." -Marc, 31
5. "It took me like a day before I went into dad mode and everything was dangerous. I remember remarking to my wife while we were on a walk with our child that people drove down our street too fast." - Chris, 32
6. "Outside of the obvious stuff, what changed the most for us was grocery shopping, honestly. We were, I guess, bad at shopping. Well, we had bad habits. We wouldn't have much of a list, we'd grab whatever and if we forgot something, oh well. We had a little drug store around the corner from our place in walking distance, so if we needed certain things like milk and eggs we could get those no problem. But you can't really wing grocery shopping with a kid. Honestly, you can't wing much of anything. There's no 'well, we forgot diapers we'll get them later.' We very quickly learned to adjust our shopping habits and now I go every week with a list and I am insanely thorough." -Paul, 30
7. "We stopped sitting down to a home-cooked meal and started shoving food into our mouth whenever we could. That lasted for a few months until we hit a schedule." -Michael, 36
8. "Everyone talks up the lack of sleep you get. Our daughter wasn't waking us up constantly throughout the night, but I have trouble falling asleep, so when she was waking us up I'd be up for a few hours. I never used to take naps before she showed up. Now I love naps." -Matt, 30
9. "Well, everything changes. But I think what stood out most was just how quickly my brain reprioritized everything. You have this newborn, and you just want to focus everything you have on them." - Jason, 31
10. "Well, there's another person in your house and they can't take care of themselves at all and throw up on your couch everyday. I'd say that's a pretty big change." -Will, 32
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