Discussion on: Dev parents, how do you do it?

Like @msarit , I've tried a few times to write this. Someone once said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the point of parenting is not that adults raise children, but that childen raise adults. Parenting pointed a searchlight at my own childishness and immaturity. I'm a better adult for the experience.

For example, I remember feeling an enormous amount of jealousy toward our first child when he was born: now there was another man in my wife's life who was demanding all her attention (and getting it!) No longer was I the centre of her world. Having kids forced me to grow up. I was 30 years old. It was about time.

Now, I'm down the other end of the demographic spectrum with my 60th birthday a little over a year away. My kids are adults themselves. My career is no longer my ultimate reality -- the thing I sacrifice anything and everything for the glory and advancement of -- and arguably never should have been. But would I have even realized that without having been the dad I have been and still strive to be?