Why did you have kids?

[Clodfobble]

Well shit... I had a long, thoughtful response written out, but I took too long to write it and I got logged out and lost all of it. Grumble grumble... I'll try and reconstruct it...

Originally Posted by Catwoman

Pride? What has pride got to do with anything? Oh yes, pride in yourself, as a woman I should a) have a self-esteem problem I need to overcome and b) overcome it by having a child.

No, you misunderstood. People with self-esteem problems should not have children. You asked why people want to have children, and I'm saying that people who already have pride in themselves often desire to have children, not the other way around.

Originally Posted by Catwoman

No, I'm not pessimistic. Most of my days are spent laughing, sometimes at absurdity, sometimes because I'm in the best relationship I've ever had and sometimes because I'm content with life, whatever happens. Yes, whatever happens.

Originally Posted by Catwoman

...most of the time they will be unhappy, like nearly everyone else on the planet...yet another confused and malconditioned person wandering aimlessly around the planet...

If you're content with your life, then you at least feel most other people are not content with theirs. I think that's cynical, if not pessimistic.

And if you are truly content with your life, then I think you do know something about life. Wouldn't you say that reaching a point where you can be content "whatever happens" is a worthy goal, and not one that everyone has attained? Then you certainly know more about life than some people. And if someone asked you, would you try to persuade them that such contentedness is a good way to look at life, and that laughing, having good relationships and being content whatever happens is a good philosophy to have in life? Then you have the innate desire to teach that person about what you know. The fact that you enjoy discussing things with people is proof that you both desire to learn from and teach other people--and learning is another very enjoyable part of being a parent.

You seem to have taken offense at my post, and I'm sorry. You asked why people would want to have children, and I tried to explain the way I feel about it, and draw parallels so that even if you didn't feel the same way about children, you might feel the same way about other things in your life and therefore understand where people who want children are coming from. I'm not trying to convince you to have children or tell you that you must have problems if you don't want them. I'm just trying to explain why people want them. You're right, I don't know that I'll be a good parent--all I can do is guess, and hope, and try my best. I don't know that I'll be a good wife, or a good friend, or a good anything... but I still try to be all of those things, because that's what humans do, we continually try.