Deciding to Have a Baby

Parents so often bring yet another mouth into a world already extremely overpopulated. I wish parents would first interview 100 parents of grown children to learn what they are getting into:

• They would learn about rebellious kids, who got tattoos, a same sex partner, a ring in their nose, purple hair…
• They would learn what is like to raise a child with a developmental disorder, so they could never be toilet trained or taught to talk.
• They would learn the heartache of losing a child to a genetic disease.
• They would learn what it was like to lose their kids in their teens to car accidents and drugs.
• They would learn about the sacrifices you have to make to care for your kids if you lose your job.
• They would learn was it was like to see your kids through university, never to see them again.
• They would learn about the humiliation of having your child get in trouble with the law.
• They would learn about dependent kids who refused to leave home.
• They would learn about raising kids with Down’s syndrome.
• They would learn about kids who grew up to be homeless.
• They would also learn about kids who made their parents proud and were hardly any trouble at all to raise.

It is a pig in the poke. You never know what you are going to get, but whatever it is, you are stuck with it. Make sure you are ready to handle anything before you stop using birth control.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)