:angrysoapbox_sml:
Note: I don't think this post is going to make me any more popular around here, but I just can't stop myself.
Having Kids = Selfishness. - In almost every situation, now that the world is such a crowded place.
They didn't fucking ask you to have them anyway, even if it was utopia here.
Yes, I told my parents this. On many occasions. In fact I didn't know how bad the world was yet back then, but all the same I figured out that they were being selfish for creating me just to be there for them... Like I was another pet, toy, or slave. I was brought into being because some other beings wanted me to be something they had in mind. -Does that sound selfless to you?
Speaking of slavery, it's important to put parenting into perspective.
For
eons humans have used
ALL children as slaves. Period.
Not always sent away as slave labor, but usually working as farmhands on their parents farms or family businesses and so on. All religions, all over the world; All slavery as far as I'm concerned up until modern times.
However it does still go on today in developing countries, and even with a large percentage of Americans too!
They wouldn't admit it of course, but their family standard of work is still one passed down for generations and it's just their standard of doing chores that make them act as slaves.
Then there is the modern class of people like I am sure many of you reading this belong to; you likely mean better than any slavery at all for your child and even want to give them a much improved life over your own... But of course no one has trained you how to do so... Many of you will be no better at parenting than your parents were simply because there aren't school courses on being a good parent. (And you have a standard of work that your parents passed to you, meaning you wouldn't know how good a life you could give them!)
There is hope for us as a species though.
In the last 200 or so years, the upper-most caring individuals (Usually always very wealthy or even royalty) have started practicing the crazy idea of only having children when they know damn well they are ready to give their child the best life humanly possible.
I'd say we've got something like 500 such people on the Earth right now that fit this description... Could be more though, I haven't met everyone yet.
I was obviously
not such a child, in fact I haven't talked to my lazy redneck parents in 10 years. However my wife and her brothers
are this kind of lucky person. They truly lived a Utopic childhood, and I can tell you for a fact that such a childhood could never spoil anyone.
The most necessary ingredient to spoiling a child is:
Not giving them as much attention as they want. -That's it. It has nothing to do with wealth, no matter how rich Veruca Salt's daddy was. He just should have paid more attention to her instead of bribing her so much.
Anyway, my wife's parents had my wife and her brothers only when fully ready and in every way gave up their own lives to pay 100% attention to them until they were old enough to move away and get married... In fact when we visit today they go back into that mode again and their lives there are totally put on hold 100%.
It's difficult for most people to believe how seriously they took the job of parenting. Many of you will think it is freakish, but it worked beyond your wildest dreams...
I'm talking about ending their careers, hiring a staff of people like nannys, cooks, & educators, all to be there for everything the child needs; but most importantly, the main contact with each is still the parent. 24/7/365/LIFE.
Today my wife and her siblings truly couldn't want anything else, even if you took away all their money, and today they have no desire to drive a $100k car or own a huge mansion. They're waaaaay to smart for that. (Oxford grads, FTW.) They all would look down on silly organizations like Mensa and have already, by their 30's, contributed something major to the world in their fields of expertise.
Anyway, sorry about the longwindedness, and I'm not doing this to brag, really. I think it is extremely interesting how different people are of different standards, and how standards dictate things like our happiness and even our actual evolution.
When I first got away from my parent's bad influence, I still wanted children. Not to be slaves or anything, but so that my way of life could go on, I guess.
That was selfish. Now that I know what humans can be, I would never, ever bring a child into this horrible world unless I could do it like my in-laws did it.
Every last one of you would feel the same way too if you knew them half as well as I do. It's really that incredible.
So the moral here is: If you're going to be a parent, Educate the HELL out of yourself on the subject first. Not just a couple books, but EVERY book on parenting would be a good start.
...But just a start.
Until humanity goes down this path we are no more than a bunch of slave-making monkeys, and deserve the uber-crowded, polluted, crappy world we're making ourselves through extreme overpopulation.
