he got a circ as an adult. Apparently crazy painful recovery.
Yeah, no. That was probably due to someone's more complicated circumstances.
Did it myself as a young-ish adult due to worsening phymosis and recovery was normal, couple of weeks or a month like any stitched wound's healing would do. Only weird and uncomfortable thing was the initial sensitivity of the tip, which completely waned off for the recovery period. I read plenty on other cases as I considered the circumcision myself, and nobody mentioned a painful recovery, recoveries sounded about same as mine.
Circumsizing your children is not really a thing in my country, except for muslims, but even if I had a boy I'd guess personally I'd leave it to them to decide if they need it when becoming an adult.