One of the things I quickly learned upon becoming a parent is that all of the parenting clichés are true.

You WILL go through a lot of diapers.

You WILL lose a lot of sleep.

Your heart WILL melt when your children smile at you.

You WILL reprioritize everything in your life around your kids.

That last one took me by surprise. I was ready to make new priorities once my son was born (in fact, I’d already started), but I was blown away by how painless it was.

For instance, before my son was born I knew I’d have less “me” time; less time to draw, less time to watch TV, less time to tinker around with my hobbies in the basement. Regardless of how conscious I was of this impending change in priorities, it kinda bummed me out. But as soon as I first laid eyes on my son I found myself not caring at all. In an instant, changing priorities was a complete non-issue for me!

So, now, I draw whenever I can squeeze it in, I watch a lot less TV (which is undoubtedly a good thing), and I haven’t picked up my guitar to give it a strum in months! But I don’t care. The tradeoff is worth it.

Perhaps that’s one of the many blessings of parenthood. Having kids makes us more selfless.