This is something that I have reflected on a lot.
I built my -7A before I had kids. It was truly one of the most incredible, off-the-wall things I have done in my entire life. I had barely even changed the oil in my vehicles before I started building -- that was the extent of my hands-on skills.
Building was extremely rewarding. It took me 3 years, 6 months and 7 days until the first flight. I worked on the project every single evening. I can count on one hand the number of days that I did not work on the project -- and those days were because I was out of town. If I'm being completely honest I have to say that I neglected my wife. Yes, she was behind me and she supported me every step of the way, but there's no doubt that undertaking such a project impacts your personal life.
Now I have two kids (ages 3 and 5). I ended up selling my RV last September for a number of reasons but largely because of the kids. I felt as though I was neglecting them every time I headed out to the airport to work on the plane. One year I even loaded up the airplane and launched (solo) to Sun-n-fun and turned around at the Georgia/Florida border. I decided I'd rather spend my time off work with my little family than with a bunch of people in the dirt.
Plus -- and I'm being completely honest here -- priorities get aligned when you attend your friend's funeral. Yes, he died doing what he loved in his RV, but I have no doubt that he loved his beautiful little girls more. The point is that there's risk. Real risk. We can try to control it, but building and flying these airplanes -- any airplane -- adds real and measurable risk to your life. If you're comfortable with that risk that's completely OK. But let's not pretend and don't let anyone tell you that there's no additional risk.
Now, I'm not going to judge other people that have kids and continue to have their RV. Doug and many other well-known RVers have kids and are by all accounts outstanding fathers. I just know that for me -- personally -- knowing the cost in terms of time in the shop I cannot fathom building an airplane right now. Time is simply too fleeting and too precious.
My current plan (subject to change, of course) is to wait it out until my kids become teenagers. Then they'll take the usual teenage course of thinking that doing family stuff is completely lame and uncool and maybe then I'll have some free time.