Is it selfish to want to have children?

Last night I visited a small gallery in Burbank, Ca to view black & white photos from local photographers. It was a wonderful experience. Some of the photos were terrific and I had a chance to catch up with some old friends and met a bunch of new ones. This was like facebook - but for real. With flesh and blood humans - not their digital avatars.

One conversation that crept up, started by two old friends that knew each other for a long time - but that I had just met - was about having kids.

By coincidence, this morning, I found an article by Eric Steinman on care2.com. I thought it was worth sharing.

A portion of Eric's article follows - as does a link to the full version....

There was a report earlier this summer, which claimed that, for parents, personal happiness and satisfaction levels tend to drop once children arrive upon the scene. Now anyone consciously, and abidingly, heading into the realm of parenthood knows the job of parent is both psychologically intensive, as well as labor intensive. So it comes as little surprise, to some of us, that for many parents (not all), the rigors of parenting would lead to a drop off in a sense of independence and personal satisfaction (MSN Money calculated that if a mother were compensated for all of the elements of the job of parenting, the salary would be around $138,000 annually – sadly this set wage is not written into the parenting contract). And grab any parent off the street, and ask them about their children, and you will either get a flood of unmitigated praise, or a litany of complaints (likely a bit of both).

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/parenting-is-it-selfish-to-want-to-have-children.html#ixzz12drIUcaw

Best In Home - Kids

Sunday, October 17, 2010