Is it really worth it to have kids, to start a family?

Are there lessons in there that as a man, you might not be able to learn or integrate

without that experience.

I wondered this for a really long time.

You know, as a young man, I kind of questioned whether or not I ever wanted to have a family.

I jumped on the fence.

I jumped on the fence. I just was on the fence.

You know, I didn't really know there's a part of me that really liked the idea of kind of being responsibility

free for the rest of my life, not having to worry about providing for another human being,

not having to really worry about whether or not I can pay the bills for them, whether or not

I was going to be a good role model for them. And I like this notion for a period of time in my

life where I didn't have to

think about those things. And then on the other side, there was this inherent part of me that was

kind of baked in. And some might say that it's a genetic predisposition that we as men,

you know, want to spread our seed, that we have this driving force and desire to procreate and to have our genetics

get passed on. But there was this other part of me that wanted to be a dad, that wanted to see what

that had to offer, that knew that it would be deeply confronting and challenging and bring up a

whole other set of issues

and obstacles that I hadn't really faced in life. And now I'm three years in to being a dad.

You know, I'm three years in. I have a son and I have another child on the way. And there's some

lessons that I've learned that have fundamentally changed who I am as a man,

but also made me a better human. It's made me a better man in ways that I actually couldn't have

...