Before you had children, what process of self-evaluation did you conduct?

Inspired by this question. I remember over-planning my wedding and having kids and thinking I had it all figured out. I knew lots about conceiving and pregnancies and labor, I took classes. Postpartum depression took me completely by surprise as did the actual parenting, given that I, for some reason, didn’t educate myself all that much on how to take care of an infant and it didn’t help to have a floopy husband and a controlling mother. Once I got better and out of the marriage and into a good relationship, I became a much better parent and realized that prior to having children, I didn’t quite think about whether I have what it takes. I am generally confident about my abilities and skills and how I learn new things but there could have been more self-assessment (I was young-ish, relatively speaking, I gave birth to my first at 22).

We also often talk about bad parenting and how people should be more educated before becoming parents or whatever, that it’s too easy to become a parent and all that. Anyway, did you think about whether or not you’re capable of being a good parent before you had children? What specifically did you question yourself about?