> Sounds to me like a very selfish view of life
It's not selfish not to have kids. And in western countries, spouses/parents can take care of themselves financially.
It's not selfish not to have kids. And in western countries, spouses/parents can take care of themselves financially.
I don't think I'll have kids. It's the one vote I've got. Why would I stake anything I care about on a society that will almost certainly fail them?
In my experience, kids can be exhausting at times, and take a lot of dedication and time that you could otherwise spend on selfish persuits, so having kids for selfish reasons sounds insanely misguided to me. It's rather that despite all those sacrifices, kids enrich your life, and they allow tremendous opportunity for self-growth and a host of experiences that are hard to replicate otherwise.
As someone who doesn't want my own kids (but like kids and spend time with them), I feel no need to have my own
What is an example of a non-selfish reason someone would have kids?
This is the reason why most people have kids. This doesn't entirely contradicts the parent post though: People are having kids for their self benefits.
Which are entirely different reasons than the parent poster gave.
This whole meta discussion of whether it's done for "selfish" reasons is largely not valuable, as every decision one makes in their life can be framed as being entirely selfish.
As other people said, these are by-the-book examples of selfish justifications. (And no, I'm not saying that ALL parenting is selfish)
And this is without considering climate change. If you consider it, having kids is very selfish.
There is also an argument that people choose not to have kids because they are too lazy and self-involved to care for another person.
Anyway, if someone does have the capacity to care for others, and wants the experience of raising children, adoption is an option as well, and doesn't require one to create more humans
Imagine putting the same sacrifice in donating money or otherwise contributing to a charity that does important work.
And you only get a "thank you" letter. Does it feel the same?
If you are as selfless as you said it should not make a difference.
Plus, you make strong claims like "nothing less selfish" and yet you have never made sacrifices for anything other than kids... maybe there's something to think about.
If one actually only cared about performing a service for the child and/or future society why do the exact genes matter?
Unless one actually thinks ones own genes are so superior that they're a service in their own right, in which case, one should be having as many children as possible.
Conversely, if one thinks that by having a child is some kind of cost, either to the child or society (or anything other than oneself), it can be a selfless choice to not have the child, even if you personally wanted one.
Source: I have kids.
Doing so was a deeply bitter pill to swallow, both in terms of the choices available and the sunk cost of previous opinions.
Working on yourself is a lifetime of effort. I suggest you focus more on that and less on casting aspersions on large groups of people for whom you know little about.