Last summer, as I watched my wife getting more and more pregnant, I had suspicions that my life would change drastically, but it was rather easy to pretend that, okay, we would have a kid, and life would go on the way it has since we got married. I didn't suspect the profound way it would change me, or how it would change my priorities in life.

I've always been ambitious and pursued my career as a software developer with enthusiasm. There have been long stretches in my life where I've put in over ten hours a day either working on a project or learning some new technology, and I don't regret any of it. In the last ten years, I've made the transition from a C programmer to a PL/SQL programmer to a Object-Orientation and Design Patterns C++/Java snob. Each transition I've felt some pride in being able to stick another set of buzzwords on my resume.

Even last summer, I was pushing my supervisor for more consulting roles (that's where developers make the real money in this industry) and spending a good portion of my free time reading technology books. I felt nagged by the fear (the legitmate fear) that if I didn't keep up with the technology curve, I would be made obsolete by the next hotshot generation of developers.

Now, with a baby, and a wife that has good job prospects (she's a psychiatrist - no shortage of crazy people in the world), I don't really care that much. As I watch my child grow, I see that as she develops it becomes more and more important that I'm there tending her. I'm happy that I can keep working with the skills I have, and I'm happy that there is a nice day care a few blocks from my office. However, if my skills go out of date, I'll just take that as a sign that it is time to realign my priorities once again and become the involved parent in the softball team or the PTA or whatever.