Having children: the most egoistic act in the world

[RANT_ON]

Many people believe, for whatever misguided reasons, that having children is one of the more selfless and ennobling acts a human being can undertake; that it is the deposition of the self for the sake of another. The way I see it, having children is the single most egoistic, self-centered thing a person can do.

You may ask parents why they had children: reasons will vary from “I wanted to bring a child into the world so he or she could grow up to be a good person,” to “I wanted to have a piece of me and my husband/wife to give to the world.”

While these may sound altruistic at first glance, they are innately egoistic reasons: the truth is, having children makes the parents happy, it satisfies their desires to be good parents, to “give to society,” to have a part of them live on in the world.

In fact, bringing innocent life into this shitty world is probably the cruelest act a human being can inflict on someone else; this world is teeming with misery, full to the rafters of unloved, uncared-for children that will never know a happy existence, and yet people, in their self-centered ignorance, deem it necessary to bring forth more life into this hapless planet. Why? What is the use?

In my opinion, adopting children is the more noble act; while you may argue that people’s motivations for becoming parents are still pretty much due to self-satisfaction, it is inarguable that Man is a hedonistic animal and in its roots, even the most seemingly altruistic act is done to bring some degree of pleasure to the doer. However, in the realm of self-serving acts, adopting a child means removing him or her from an environment where he or she is probably unloved, or not taken care of as he or she should be; it means introducing a child into a home of full of love, of people who are willingly take on the responsibilities of parenthood and who will probably improve that child’s life tenfold, and thus help in reducing some of the crappiness that prevails in the world.

If the world were even half-way decent, there would be a moratorium on having children until after all abandoned and orphaned children had found themselves a loving home… but, alas, the world is yet far, far away from being even half-way decent.

[RANT_OFF]

Sorry I didn’t bring the funny today; I just had to vent. 🙂

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