[redwoods]

1. It's the best thing ever. Do it when your ready but if your ready younger that's great. You need all the energy you can get. If I could have done it younger I would. 2. I only felt truly grown up when I became a dad at 43.there's something about putting your own sleeping child to bed, the privilege, joy and responsibility are amazing. It's not that your not grown up if u don't have kids but it made me feel more solid and that's a better platform for launching a business - for me anyway. 3. While you will be more risk averse with kids the benefit is assessing opportunities more clearly. 4. I have just started reading "Raising Babies" by Steve Biddulph a psychologist. Very enlightening on the issue of putting tiny kids into day care. Basically, avoid at all costs if possible according to the latest research. The best thing in the world is looking after your own kids and when they are tiny this is best for them too. As another post says : don't shoehorn them into your life, change your life to fit around them. 5. The first 12 months of a new baby are a blur of exhaustion. Don't fight it, accept it. You can't do 10 eighteen hour days in a row anymore... And that's a good thing too!