But in all seriousness, congratulations and I wish you all the best :)
Kidding kidding, but congrats to Jessica too!
On the humorous side, this reminds me of this story: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms
(Richard Stallman speaks a bit about having children)
The funniest part is:
"It doesn’t take special talents to reproduce, even plants can do it. On the other hand, contributing to a program like Emacs takes real skill. That is really something to be proud of.
It helps more people, too."
One more link that made me laugh a lot (again, Stallman): http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-d...
Having a child (I have one) is a big responsibility but the joys far outweigh the work. I think, for me, the thing that I like the most is it gives me plenty of opportunities to learn not to be selfish but instead invest my time and energy into someone else.
And I would submit that it is not impossible to raise them well -- you just need to approach it the right way and educate yourself on the matter.
Congrats PG! I look forward to your essays on the matter.
As for raising children... It really is impossible to raise them well. Every decision is a compromise and even if one choice is obviously better, it's just the lesser of evils. And those evils could have been prevented if the kid hadn't been born.
(I suppose I'm trolling, but this subject is so near and dear to me that I can't resist.)
Congrats!
Although, there are many couples who can't get pregnant who would like to, so in cases like that, maybe literal congratulations would be in order?
For many of us, the advent and wide deployment of birth control allows us to choose if and when we decide to procreate. Part of the downside of this is that we're often waiting until we're older before we decide to have kids.
It'd be inappropriate for me to comment on JL's age, but from experiences personal and nearby, getting pregnant has the potential to be stressful, depressing, and exciting. And at times it just doesn't happen.
Congratulations are in order because they've decided to take a chunk of their lives and time to take responsibility for another human being. And because the deep-seated happiness that comes from it is a gift worth congratulations.
ps. congrats!
Here in Kenya, the kids born around now are either Obama (boy or Michelle (girl)
Too early for my daughter in any case; right now in terms of computer interaction she's limited to watching videos of babies and animals on Youtube, and attempting to grab and drool on the microphone when we talk with her grandparents via Skype.
But, I think there is a difference between exposing your child to something you find interesting to see if it interests them too, and pushing your child to be interested in the things you find interesting. The vibe I got from grosales post is the former; expose him/her to Lisp, or some other computing topic, gauge their interest and go from there.
Best of luck. Kids are can be a lot of sweat and tears, but they're also the best thing you can experience in life. "Terrible blessings" might be a good aphorism.
Fortunately, startup-trained parents generally expect their kids to change their business plans several times.
(P.S. -- congratulations!)