Having children certainly can consume you. No doubt about that. It is rewarding on one level and extremely costly to the "self" on another. Very demanding and the nature of the demand changes every 6 months or so as their needs change. I never thought I was the parenting "type" and probably am not the best but I am not screwing it up too badly so far.

How to do it? That part is actually easy. A couple of basic books and instinct and that part mostly takes care of itself.