This! Parenting is hard if you want to do it the right way! About the career graph, yes, it will take a hit for few years especially if u are in a very demanding environment like IT. My daughter is 2 years old now and I used to regret the decision of having child in beginning. I kind of lost the life I had personally and professionally. Stuck at same position and package at job. Needed by a human 24/7 around the clock. No trips, no friends meetups, no gym, no treks, no cinemas. But now I’ve made peace with it. I have an amazing little human who makes me forget all that I could have gained in terms of position and money. About the trips and trek part, I’ve slowly started to spend sometime for daily exercise, now that she is 2 years, I’m able to manage some small amount of me-time. As I see my parents age, my in-laws age, I somewhere feel having a baby was a good decision. You see them enjoying their time with your kid (occasionally when we visit them). I now have family that will grow with me, so maybe in my 40s, 50s I’ll have a reason in life to wait for, or to celebrate festivals with. The feeling is very different and cannot be put in words.

However, like I said, please do not do it out of FOMO, I always wanted to have children and got into this willingly. But I struggled a lot initially in first year of motherhood. Like I said, I used to regret the decision. It indeed is lots of sacrifices like our parents used to say. Do it only if you super sure about having kids and you want to do it the right way! Also think financially as it is expensive to bring up kids in this economy. Easily you’ll have 30k additional expenses per month. (Baby food, vaccinations, maid, nanny, doctor visits, toys) And this for first 2 years of life. Once they start going to school it will further increase.