It was off target anyway <| sep |> Actually I hear from friends that those who do have children . their lives changed . They can ' t just go out when they want to , they can ' t just hang out with friends when they want to , they are constantly exhausted because when work finishes , they have children to pick up from grandpa and grandma and then there ' s dinner and cleanup and bath time and that takes so much time , because there are only so many hours in an evening before you have to be up for work . Sure , they try to make time for their friends , but once children enter the picture . no friendship is the same again , because these children are dependent on their parents for everything they take up all the parents ' time . Texting your adult friend for 5 minutes when your kid is in the bath isn ' t the same as being able to drive over and spend the night drinking and playing board games . You do get to keep in touch but it isn ' t the same . Hell , my friend doesn ' t even have children , but she ' s in the married transition of life and things already aren ' t the same anymore . I can ' t just call her up for a sleep over because we have different lives and job schedules and priorities in life . I imagine it is double true for couples who have children . That ' s just how parenting is . It could be an absolute joy raising these children , but I don ' t think it is so farfetched to believe that , no , you can ' t just drive over to your buddy ' s for the night anymore , because who is going to watch over your kid for you ? These things change , at least until the kid is well into their teens . That ' s inevitable when one has children . You now have tiny little humans completely helpless on you for everything .