Motherhood
I needed a break from my lesson planning so I decided to pick up my long neglected blog.
First off to all the mothers out there I am not writing this as a criticism of you. I am sure you have settled these issues for yourselves, but I haven't.
I have been told that couples who choose not to have children are selfish because they spend all their money, time etc on themselves where couples who have children give to their children.
Honestly I feel that having a child is just as selfish as not having a child. Basically there are millions of unwanted children and suffering people in the world who we could be helping, but instead we choose to have children to add more love to our own lives. We do everything we can to give them every possible advantage and in doing so waste natural resources and contribute to the problem of global warming and pollution. Meanwhile we throw a few pennies here and there to a charity to ease our conscience. The children we raise repeat the cycle, either lavishing the majority of their resources on their own children or themselves. Basically we are just extending the realm of selfishness to include our families as well as ourselves.
In my opinion if we are going to raise children unselfishly we should raise them to be change agents, people who strive to make a difference in the world. Giving them all the best toys and clothes and opportunities teaches them that those things are what are important. Instead we should make social and environmental justice the primary values in our families. That way we can break the cycle of selfishness that seems to run through our bloodlines.
First off to all the mothers out there I am not writing this as a criticism of you. I am sure you have settled these issues for yourselves, but I haven't.
I have been told that couples who choose not to have children are selfish because they spend all their money, time etc on themselves where couples who have children give to their children.
Honestly I feel that having a child is just as selfish as not having a child. Basically there are millions of unwanted children and suffering people in the world who we could be helping, but instead we choose to have children to add more love to our own lives. We do everything we can to give them every possible advantage and in doing so waste natural resources and contribute to the problem of global warming and pollution. Meanwhile we throw a few pennies here and there to a charity to ease our conscience. The children we raise repeat the cycle, either lavishing the majority of their resources on their own children or themselves. Basically we are just extending the realm of selfishness to include our families as well as ourselves.
In my opinion if we are going to raise children unselfishly we should raise them to be change agents, people who strive to make a difference in the world. Giving them all the best toys and clothes and opportunities teaches them that those things are what are important. Instead we should make social and environmental justice the primary values in our families. That way we can break the cycle of selfishness that seems to run through our bloodlines.
Comments
I also don't think having children is always selfish, as it depends on how you spend your time, money, and resources. I believe it is fully possible to have children without creating great additional impact on this planet. Also, adopting children is not always possible as it is WAY more expensive to adopt than it is to have a child of your own. Jeff and I would love to adopt but we've seen price tags of $20,000+ PER child. How would we ever afford that? We can have our own for a $2,000 midwife bill.