Not all children scream & crave attention. My parents believed that "children should be seen & not heard". The only time I spoke was when I went to Grandmas & played with my cousins. I learnt to read at an early age & all my questions were answered by my parents giving me a book & telling me to read that. I played with the family dog or read so was a quiet child. (I've made up for it now though & sometimes abuse the privilege of asking questions as it's a novelty to get answers.) My Brother & Sister's were much older than me though.
There exists an infinite array of answers to that question, Darth. Just like every child is different in their level of attention seeking (as Horsa has already noted), from a complete lack of, through "normal", up to serious disorders. The best answer is a polite: Fed himself knows and you cannot know unless you're his very close friend or expert therapist understanding Fed's situation and goals. So in general, I can safely opine, that said decision depends if Fed feels more "tired" with the existing kids who distract him from what he'd otherwise do (train & play tennis in his case), or if he is "bored" by lack of pupil activity in his household. He must smartly balance those two opposing factors. In the end he's also got enough money to adjust a possible imbalance towards a former factor: he can afford a well paid personalised childcare if he wants some.
You certainly have a point here. There was some research done last century that showed that scientific achievements dropped sharply among male scientists in the 19th century after fatherhood. It was worth noting because those 19th century male scientists still had the same amount of time after fatherhood. It supports your
Now I agree with that because I know what you're saying is true. I've never heard it phrased like that before though. I like how you said what you said. I just didn't agree with what Darth said about children being screaming & attention-seeking because not all children are. It depends on how they're brought up. Some are shy & some come from households where parents believe that "Children should be seen & not heard" & they teach their children to "only speak when they're spoken to".
Very interesting historical and evolutionary points, lob. Still, it's pretty hard to put Roger Federer into any category of regular humans and draw conclusions. It's well-known that they travel with a huge entourage, and he is separated from the exigencies of parenting when he's working. As to @DarthFed 's comment: I'll trade in cultural stereotypes for the sake of humor, but, dude...they're Swiss. I don't really see them as "screaming, attention-seeking munchkins." Hard to picture Mirka standing for that, either.
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Rosewall had 2 children when he was still winning majors. This article on his 1972 AO is interesting in terms of motivation. Laver also had kids. I'm sure a fair number of the lesser names did, back in the day. They married young and the wives stayed home with the kids.
I also read information that stated the same thing. Humans are formed the way they are to keep the species going & that's why men normally fall for ladies they find beautiful & ladies normally fall for strong & intelligent men. When we were still hunter-gatherers this meant that ladies had someone strong who could hunt & fight for them & could think about hidden dangers so they could protect their women. Beautiful women are normally seen as healthy so if men picked healthy women they thought that they would do a better job of creating capable children who would reproduce & keep the family going. Human lives have changed a lot since then. Although humans still have the same natural urges have become more advanced & because most of us are rational beings we do have choices to make which means that in some people once they've got their young are less motivated but in other people they have the same amount of motivation & some people feel the need to prove themselves to their young so this increases their motivation. I thought this was common knowledge but the idea of what exactly is common knowledge varies from person to person.
Speaking of chalk and cheese, I think your post misses the point by a wide mark. They all played with wooden racquets back then, and it is only your opinion that players now are "pumped full of drugs." They are more conscious of diet and fitness, though. But the current line of talk is motivation post-having children, and Rosewall spoke to the notion of motivation amongst the younger players in his day. If you read the article, you would also have noticed that his opponent was 36 or something (to Rosewall's 37,) and had only come back to the tour a few weeks prior to that AO. That doesn't speak well of the younger players in that tournament, or at that time. Which is something that we're talking about right now, ironically, in this era. And I don't think motivation is something that Roger lacks for, though I understand the point of questioning if it is lessened, now that he's fulfilled his evolutionary mission.
