briskpuma23 said:I know it’s not exactly trendy to advocate for large families these days, unless you’re coming from the Catholic Church—but it’s easy for them to talk when they don't even recognize their own kids.
To be clear, my stance on needing at least five kids has nothing to do with some nonsense about "procreation" or any kind of moral crusade.
The truth is, you have children for your own sake.
When our time finally runs out, most people—especially people today—will find it pretty hard to sing My Way while looking back at their lives as a selfless sacrifice for others. There's no way. Most of us are just focused on how to cut corners, how to get the most out of life while spending the least, how to hustle, how to score a weekend trip to a beach house, then head to work, maybe join a committee, and so on. In short, we'd rather people didn't judge us by our actions.
And given the kind of shallow people society has turned us into, we can barely manage to bring one child into this world; having two would already feel like an incredible sacrifice.
Because we are so spiritually numb and, let's be honest, lazy and immature, we’ll probably end up ruining the kid too. We’ll pass all our neuroses down to them, instill hypochondria and cynicism, blast them with antibiotics the second they cough, and then complain at the office about how "fragile" our child is. Besides, if you spend your time talking about your kid at work, only the worst kind of boss would actually trust you with a serious project. So, that one child becomes the perfect excuse to stay lazy and avoid doing any real work.
But again, after fifty or sixty years of dodging actual life, retirement rolls around with its tiny pension, and you realize that your one precious child doesn't really love you. They’re busy living their own selfish little lives with an equally rotten spouse and an only child of their own—an obnoxious, spoiled brat who won't even bother to visit Grandma. That's when you realize you have nobody.
That wouldn't happen if you had managed to have five kids. Granted, one would probably be an idiot. One might get hit by a bus, but that still leaves you with three healthy individuals. Healthy because, by necessity, they had to learn how to share, and because you didn't have enough time to focus all your dysfunction on just one person, they didn't develop those stupid neuroses. Plus, a big family naturally builds a competitive spirit, starting from when they're toddlers fighting over fries at McDonald's during a Happy Meal you take them to on Sundays because you're too lazy to cook a Sunday roast.
And those three healthy ones will actually love you. They’ll remember how warm and happy the home felt, conveniently forgetting the fact that it was only warm because you could only afford to give them one bedroom. They’ll turn all the flaws of their upbringing into beautiful memories. And they’ll take care of you in your old age because they grew up to be decent people. When you die, someone will actually cry for you. And honestly, there’s nothing more a person can wish for than that.
So, is that really it for you? Is that the whole point of living?
Just having a bunch of kids and secretly hoping someone will bring you a cup of tea when you're elderly and frail? 😕
When I’m an old lady,
absolutely not, but
NEVER would I want my child to have to take care of me and wipe my ass for me—no. Because at the end of the day, I
love my child so much that I’m not such a selfish jerk that I’d make my own existence a burden on them in my twilight years. ☕
There are assisted living facilities for that, not children.
The truth is, the selfish ones are the people who expect their kids to carry them on their backs once they grow old and helpless. In a way, that's just fundamentally wrong.
Furthermore,
In my view, the purpose of life definitely isn't about cranking out a massive brood, because I honestly can't see why on earth I would do that. For whom? Myself? My husband? The world? Society?
wtf?
Personally, I find the most frustrating people are those who have a dozen kids and then can't even afford to feed them. Seriously, I feel like there should be a law preventing people like that from having more children.
The most fascinating case I know was a woman who had three absolute idiots for children. She's a distant relative of mine. This woman used to be a powerhouse; she literally had everything.
And then she decided she shouldn't have had those three kids...
You want to know what her life looks like now? All three of them are ungrateful jerks who were raised identically, yet all equally messed up.
They never learned how to stand on their own two feet; instead, they were leeching off her for money as soon as they were old enough to work. They even threatened her for cash. It's actually embarrassing to go into the details.
Now that she's older and her health is failing, she is quite literally
broken. Both financially and physically. She used to be a stunning woman, and now she's just a shell of her former self. It's tragic.
It sounds harsh, but she would have been much better off if she had never had children at all.
Regardless, nowadays, kids just don't give a damn about their parents. They've exploited her, ruined her, and now they're finally satisfied.
Bottom line:Life is unpredictable and messy, and you truly never know how things will turn out or what kind of adults your children will become.
The lucky parents are the ones whose kids move out, find their independence, and carve out their own paths. That, in itself, is a massive success.
