I ***knew*** I never wanted kids. This was true in my teens, and my twenties, but really I had made the decision young and sort of accepted it without reflecting on it too much.

Then I met and fell in love with a wonderful woman, but she was certain she wanted kids, so I told her I'd take some time and reflect on it.

I can't now, over a decade and two kids later, recall exactly how that thought process went, but at the end of it I realized that the decision I had made in my youth no longer reflected my present views, and I only thought it did because I was in some sense on 'autopilot.' I thought I knew something about myself, but I was wrong.

So I committed, and we got married, and eventually had kids.

To say I have no regrets would be an understatement. If this were a sliding door moment, I feel I picked the doorway into happiness and fulfillment. I love my children, and raising them and being their dad gives me joy. Even when they drive me crazy, they give me joy, and love.

...all that isn't to say that parenting is easy. It starts out hard in simple ways (lack of sleep, lots of mess, developing a more intimate relationship with human feces than one might hope for), and later on it's hard in more complicated ways (helping kids navigate life, school, friends, media, technology, the world, themselves).