A while ago I wrote a column asking that question--are kids worth it?
It seems to me that increasingly younger people are looking at the world of parenting and opting out.
Now obviously I don't want someone to become a parent if they really don't want kids. But I do worry about the effect on society if so many people do decide to forego parenting. I don't think that's a healthy thing.
And so I think there’s something else going on. If you’re a young adult surveying the parental scene, you see harried parents chronically short on cash because hockey costs so much this year. You see them tying themselves in knots because their toddler won’t sleep through the night, their seven-year-old can’t read, or their teenager has gotten into the wrong crowd. It looks like a recipe for an ulcer.
The one thing you can’t see is what’s going on inside those parents. You don’t see what happens in the heart the first time you hold your baby. You can’t see what being a parent does to you; how it makes you love life so much more, care about the world so much more, or brings a richness to your life you never believed possible. I am not saying that non-parents can’t experience love; only that being a parent is a joy like no other, and cannot truly be comprehended until one experiences it.
After the column was published, CBC radio called to interview me, and I was invited on "On the Line" with Christine Williams. I finally put together clips from that appearance into a video, and I'll post it here:
Hope you enjoy! You can pop over to my YouTube page and view the rest of my videos here. I'm going to try to add a new one every Thursday!
What you say is so true. Kids need time to do nothing and they need time with parents to play a good old fashioned board game instead of running around all the time.
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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Great job on the interview.
What you say is so true. Kids need time to do nothing and they need time with parents to play a good old fashioned board game instead of running around all the time.