Mothers of FDS, what did you wish you knew before having your child?

What do you wish someone would have told you before you picked the father of your kid or before you had your kids? What advice would you give to women who are yet to be mothers? What do you wish you would have been prepared for?

I find myself wondering what I would need to be equipped with before having kids. Would I need to work towards my finances to afford a nanny/housekeeper or a chose a man who can afford those things? Would it consume my life completely as I've seen it consume some of my married friends? Should I prepare for a slow down in my career? What advise do you have for us?

One of my friends said and I quote "you have to make sure you have them only when you're completely ready" and I don't even know what completely ready would mean for me. Another was trying to find a remote job and told me: "The child care is overwhelming for me and I'm tempted to resign my job at the bank."

I had two other friends who got pregnant like two or three months into their marriage and when the baby came, all they talked about was changing their jobs to something less ambitious that would allow them stay at home or close early. Meanwhile their husband's lives remain largely unchanged.

Edit: feel like I'm being are stalked in record time. As soon as I made this post, and opened Netflix the first recommendation on the app was a show called "Working moms". 🤦‍♀️