Absolutely! If you didn't expect to do less at work, then you would be doing a great disservice to your child. If you expect your company to reward you for less then you would be doing a disservice to you company. Much to the dismay of many book authors out there, you can not have a top career and a proper family.

It depends. For me personally, having children motivated me to accelerate my career path so my wife could stay home with the children. In the past 5 years since having our first child, I've started my own business and doubled my income, so that now our single income is about the same as our double income 5 years ago.

I think "slow down... MY career" is coming from the "me" generation of I want what I want,,, I want it NOW... and no one better get in the way.

However... The realities of downsizings, NAFTA/CAFTA job offshorings, the normal family birth decisions...and now even more and more aging parents living longer...has changed everything.

So, now... In fact..Lots of things... including having a child(ren), changing careers 3 to 7 times, and assisting aging parents are just a few of the things that "slow down" "YOUR" career.

I remember coming across families in South America ten years ago that had several lawyers and/or engineers in them and yet maybe one family car and a 29 year old successful lawyer...still at home...and maybe a grandmother...all under the same roof.

Was it a "slowed down" career? or just an economic and social reality?

Career, big deal. Read a little philosophy (or look at your grandparents generation) and you will see that the happiness from what you learn and experience as a mother will deepen your joy considerably beyond making it to an arbitrary management position.

Contentedness, happiness is the goal, not career.

The astonishing part of this quote for me is that the initial reaction here is dominated here to date mostly by male responders, when traditionally the child-rearing-work question would be deemed as a "female" perspective. That would be a great sign if men were not still buying into the ancient macho shtick of cherry picking human values or pricing and shopping a human life as some kind of productive left-brain like investment. In a world where East of Suez is increasingly lauded for it's mythic "spiritual values" that have the effect of taking human life backwards a few thousand centuries; the normally facile, futile and brain farmed and branded societies of the west, may be developing a mindset that is capable of moving human existence into an integrated and meaningful 21st Century life [rather than firmly entrenched in the history book of misappropriated millenniums further segmented by war-inspiring tribal ideologies]...so what does that mean? It means we are beginning to notice that human life is a much more higher order intelligence than just tinkering with one more cog or byte in the western machinery of "productive" thinking or base our rule making on philosophies created thousands of years ago that now have blurred role clarity in terms of entering the stage of our modern day global playhouse. Better still ask any 8 year old kid this simple question for all of us will spared one more adult answer or at least if any adult wants an honest answer about how childlike they really are, ask any smart kid out there and brace yourself for an honest answer.......M.

It depends on how much money you start with.