O.k.

This is going to strike a nerve, but...

I first started feeling this way about 2 months ago during the gas "crisis when I saw a CNN story about a family who had 5 kids who sent them to private school 15 miles away from his suburban home, who worked 30 miles away from his home. He and his wife each drove Suburbans, which get rather poor gas mileage. His quote was someting like: "We have no choice! We have 5 kids! We can't drive anything smaller and these gas prices hurt us the most!"

Well, aside from the obvious, (Drive a minivan), this guy failed to acknowledge that nobody made him have 5 kids. That was his volitional act. No matter what one's beliefs on contraception, or abortion, etc, it still takes a volitional act to have children. That is a choice. And obviously, it is a choice with consequences.

It seems to me that too many people today who are parents fail to acknowledge that choosing to have a child is a choice that has changed your life, and feel that they don't have to make any adjustments accordingly- ie. arriving at the airport earilier because it takes the family longer to get places and you need to check bags. I get this same line all the time - "Well, you don't have children..." like somehow I'm blessed or lucky or whatever... and I should feel guilty about that.

And I'm not one of those anti-kid people at all. My wife an I fully intend to have kids, when we are ready, which is not now, for a number of reasons. I recognize that I'll have to completely rearrange my life- including getting to the airport earlier than usual because I have bags to check.

Just my 2 cents. Not meant to be a mass generalization, but it seems that it's becoming a pattern. Also, there was an article in the Sunday NY Times Mag about people who are profoundly anti-kid, so it was on my mind.



[This message has been edited by BoSoxFan45 (edited 08-04-2000).]