Children Are Worth Having

Check out this Mercator-net article by Barbara Lilley. It's a great rebuttal to Maclean's Magazine article, "No Kids, No Grief". In response to 40 reasons not to have children, Barbara outlines 20 reasons why children are worth having.

Corinne Maier and the men and women like her, who claim that being a parent is just too much work and that we should all just focus on ourselves, are the truly selfish ones in our society. Not by any stretch of the imagination would I claim that everyone should aim to have children; parenthood is not for the faint of heart. But for those of us who know, in our heart of hearts, that having children was the best choice to make, here is my list of reasons for why you should have children (or at least consider it).

• Children keep you honest
• Children don't care if you're the perfect height or weight, just as long as you love them
• Children keep you young
• A hug from a child can warm your heart
• Children show you your own negative qualities that need to be changed
• A child's laugh makes you smile too (and sometimes even join in)
• Children remind you how much fun colouring can be
• One day, your child will be toilet-trained, your dog will forever need you to pick up after it
• Children don't leave wet furballs lying around for you to step in
• Breastfeeding brings you closer to your baby-it is not slavery. Scratch that-feeding your baby brings you closer to your baby-whether breast or bottle-fed
• Children only kill desire in a marriage if you let them – get creative
• Riding the merry-go-round with your children reminds you how to be a kid again
• Little faces that light up when you walk through the door-whether you've been gone for five hours or five minutes
• Snuggling in bed reading together
• Crayon drawings on the refrigerator door
• Swelling with pride at your child's accomplishments-whether it's learning to ride a bike or graduating from high school
• Having someone to pass on family traditions to – or creating new ones
• Mother's Day cards that say, “You're the best Mom in the whole world!”
• Father's Day cards that read, “To the world's greatest Dad!”
• Hugs and kisses, just because

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And I bet every loving parent could easily come up with the remaining 20 reasons :)