2nd reply, to the side topic -
I definitely believe adults agree to make sacrifices when they decide to be parents, but I think there's room for some individuality as well. My ideal philosophy is pretty much: 1) kids needs, 2) adults needs, 3) everyone's "wants" in balance.
My mom described it to me this way when I was kid: "Before you were born, if there was only one hot dog in the house to eat, your dad and I would have split it. After you were born, it would have gone to you, and we would have waited." (Thankfully, it was never actually true for us, just an analogy!) And I feel the same way about DS.
But knowing they would put me first in an emergency didn't stop my parents from having their own lives when things were fine. They went out together sometimes, and separately at other times. (I remember they each belonged to bowling leagues on different nights, for example.) Someone was always there for us, and I always felt we were the most important thing in their lives, but I never felt the pressure of being the only thing in their lives.
As for those "wants" - It probably does skew toward the kids in a lot of households...because most parents really do "want" to make their kids happy! It's really fun for them to watch; they get something out of it too. But looking back as an adult, I can see some of the sacrifices my my mom made for me that I couldn't then, and I can identify certain ones that I'm either very grateful she made or feel kind of guilty about now. (And I actually think they did a little better at the balance than I do. Because DS is an only, I think we did fewer adult outings when he was little than my parents did because it felt more like "leaving one family member out" than "adults are doing this, kids are doing this".)
I have to say I have a hard time understanding the posts about spouses being more important than children, though. They're both very important to me, and we pretty much do equal votes on the little things like choosing restaurants...but if DH and DS were both passed out in a burning building, and I could only drag one of them to safety, it would be my child. (And I hope DH would do the same.)