Dear PiePie,
I have probably mentioned this before. For peers my age who are considering whether to have a child, I have tended to be on the side of advocating that they take that path. This is contrary to the trend of couples who have tended not to have offsprings, whatever the reasons might be. And there are many.
But in having a child, the parents gain a sense of possibility that would otherwise be absence. To be clear, this is not the same as putting their hopes and dreams on the child as a burden.
In every lifetime, the start is full of possibilities and gradually, all those possibilities are narrowed and replaced by the actualization of (or failure to achieve) those potentials. At some stage, one might feel that the rest of their life has already been laid out. That the rest of their life has already been written.
Well, with a child, the pages remain unwritten, and possibilities abound. Again, I am not advocating that the parents write in their child’s book. What’s exciting is simply that there are unwritten chapters that the parent is somewhat involved and invested in. That there are stories to be discovered. To rejoice at. To despair from. The vicissitudes of life continue to contribute to highs and lows of the parents’ emotions.
It’s often better to travel than to arrive.
Love, Dad
PS: In writing this, I recognized that I sound incredibly self-centered. That having a child is so that it allows the parents to have some sort of benefit. And yet, there are arguments against having a child that stems from self-interest as well, and I do not see that as materially different.