Summer vacation has finally come to an end.

The organizers of my wife's conference in Mexico made a poor choice when they scheduled it for the second half of August, at least as far as I'm concerned. By the second week of August, pretty much all summer activities for children here have shut down as virtually everybody but me is off on vacation. Between her packing, flying, attending the conference, flying back and recovering from jet lag, I've endured more than two weeks of staying home by myself and taking care of three young children who are up and full of energy every day at the crack of dawn.

It was certainly not easy, to say the least, but to everybody's surprise, including myself, I can't say I suffered. Or hated it. It drained all my energy, it required all the patience and perseverance I could scrape together but I pulled through. I even managed to get some work done during the time she was away.

I love my children more than anything and love spending time with them, but still I feel relieved that summer vacation is over and tomorrow they'll be off to school, giving me at least a few hours of freedom every day. I feel liberated. I think anybody who had children would know what this feels like.

Someone sent me a link to an article (http://nymag.com/news/features/67024/) discussing the stark contrast between people's expectations from parenting and what the parenting experience actually involves. Apparently, multiple studies suggest that happiness decreases when people have children, somewhat paradoxically, I suppose. I think most people don't really know what they are getting themselves into when they decide to have children. Not that I'm complaining or anything, nor do I wish to discourage anybody. Actually, our life didn't change that much, we've even backpacked across India with our two eldest when one was 3 years old and his brother was 3 months old, having children is not an impediment for us. But having children redefines you and forces you to uncover a whole new mental and emotional area in your personality. Before we had our first son, people told me my life would be over. Actually, it feels like that's when my life started.

I think it is important for people to realize that being a parent means that an important part of your being will transform irreversibly, and to come to terms with this notion. I think this is essential to the ability to cope with the challenges of parenting.