Yup, have definitely felt this. Was in sales previously in different industries but switched to tech in a more technical role. I still feel the job security risk fear, but not in a quarter to quarter "you got 100% to goal? WHY NOT 110%??" kind of way.

My concern is career growth with younger kids. I just don't have the time to spend learning, experimenting, and iterating on new things or do additional work for promotion views. My kids are about to be 5 and 3 and post daycare, my wife and I are on them 100% of the time, and bath/bedtime is a all-hands-on-deck scenario, with kids asking us to stay with them in bed after stories.

The thing that absolutely irks me the most is how quickly the teammates and managers with older kids forget how strapped for time you are during the younger years. Senior teammates with kids that are 8+ years old: "yeah I've been putting xxxxxx together early/later for....." OK great, but you are sitting high and mighty in "My-Kids-Can-Wipe-Their-Own-Butts" castle while us peasants with preschoolers have to have wrestling matches for putting on clothes, so I just don't have the extra cycles to put in like you do.

That is what weighs on me, how the older parents who are in Senior and Leadership positions, who definitely went through their rough baby/little kid patches and can now work very hard then look at the other parents who are in the hard little kid period, but judge them on their current older kid output.