My wife had a decent line once when someone without kids who was thinking about trying asked her what it's like having a kid. She said, take the best parts of you and your spouse. Then add the absolute worst parts of you and your spouse. Then put them into a little small human who is completely dependent on you that has no ability to reason and no ability to communicate what they want from you. It's your job to keep that small human alive. If you're up for that challenge then you're ready to be a parent.
Parenting can be very rewarding. It also can be incredibly challenging and amazingly thankless. I say that as the father of a teen girl who has had multiple issues and ongoing issues with depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, anorexia, and self-harm. The pandemic and puberty brought a lot of terrible things out in my kid. Things that maybe were always there. She has ADHD and is possibly bi-polar. I've had to change my parenting style greatly in the past year because there are scary moments where things were hanging on by a thread. We've had a couple stays in inpatient facilities and tons of group therapy, individual therapy, family therapy, and doctors visits that have uprooted our lives considerably. My challenge right now is just keeping this kid alive because there's something there that's just making it hard for her to stay focused on the future. She has friends, she has interests, she's going to a magnet high school next year that she had to work hard to get into. She has a lot to live for. She is incredibly smart but that intelligence can be a massive problem because she's argumentative constantly. Then there's some weird thing that eats away at her in the latter parts of the day that causes the self-harm and suicidal thoughts to come out. This kid has had issues all her life, even going back to being a baby that couldn't sleep through the night without massive measures undertaken by the wife and I. She almost made us decide to not have another kid. But I'm so glad we did because my younger kid is the exact opposite. Easy to deal with, no issues with mental health (yet), very empathetic, loves the small things in life and finds beauty in most things. They are very yin and yang. The older one is definitely going to be successful in life if we can get her past this small moment in teendom.
I love my kids. They've given me a sense of purpose that I didn't previously have. But it's definitely not all it's cracked up to be and that's okay. That's life. If you're unsure you want that then just delay further. Kids are definitely not for everyone and not everyone should have them. There's a lot you give up by being a parent. There's a lot more you get back by being a parent. My only regret is we didn't travel more before we had kids. I say that as we're packing to leave for Palo Duro Canyon today.