Yes, but you are men. You still have your career(s). Michelle Obama mourned about her non-existing accomplishments. [Remember she got disbarred, or something like that.]
Let’s hear from our sister FReepers’ pov.
1. Actually, my “career,” as it were, is over. I’m disabled. Sadly, we own a small business, and now my wife must run it. We hope to be ready to exit in a year or two and retire completely, and she counts the days until we’re done with it. This is not what she ever wanted to do. Fortunately, disability came after our sons were of age and out of the house.
2. Children did not come readily to us. This saddened me, but devastated my wife. It is she who most wanted children.
3. My wife did not have or want a “career.” She had a job, pre-kids. She wasn’t interested in a “career” because she knew she had something greater:
4. A vocation. As wife, and as mother. I just asked my wife, and she remarked, “Thank God you always made enough that I never had to work. I’m so lucky that I could just be a mom. That’s all I ever wanted to be.” She didn’t ever want to trade the gift of motherhood for the cold, watery porridge of a “career.”
5. I guess it depends on how long-term your perspective is.