misora

Yes, I'm planning on having a child.

There is no reason for me not to want a baby. I'm in my mid-thirties, I'm quite financially stable. My boyfriend and I bring in more than enough money to keep ourselves comfortable while simultaneously caring for another human being. And two cats. I'm healthy and free of diseases and ailments. At the risk of sounding immodest, we have really good genes, and our kids would do nothing but benefit from it.

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that the planet is becoming over-populated. (Not quite there, yet, by the way. This planet can handle six billion people. Check again in 100 years, and that might be a very different story.) Yes, I'm aware that someday resources might be more scarce than they are now.

I'm aware because I'm a conscientous person. I educate myself, I care about the environment, I care about the well-being of society. Every day I work, I'm helping facilitate the development of molecules and compounds that will cure human diseases around the world. I follow the rules, from traffic lights to the mandate of the government as a whole. I help people in need.

So why does someone equate me having a baby with being detrimental to the global population, as a whole? Why would they think there are so many other things I could do to benefit humanity, other than have children?

News flash - I'm not having a baby because I believe I'm doing the world - or the human species - a favor. No, really, I'm not quite that arrogant. I've led a relatively low-profile lifestyle; you wouldn't know my name unless you read tons of scientific journals often enough - and I'm not talking about that "Scientific American" horseshit. I mean the real, hardcore scientific publications with wording that most need an interpreter to decipher. I'm sure whatever child/children (yes, I'm planning on having more than one, gasp!) I have, they will not be world-renowned people. At least, I don't think so.

Hopefully, they will be successful someday at what they choose to do. Hopefully they will be happy, which is really the more important thing anyway. And being world-renowned does not necessarily equate with that.

I'm having a child - and potentially more than one, if nature allows it - because I love my family, both my natural one and my extended one, and I love my boyfriend and his family. I've grown up having a feeling of responsibility for the success and the continuation of my family, which maybe certain people who are so against childbearing have either never experienced for themselves, or forgotten. I'm doing it for myself, because I want children I can teach and love and care for, like my parents and grandparents taught and loved and cared for me. I'm doing it because I've earned my right in this world, through hard work and conscientous behavior, to have them...and they deserve a chance to exist.

I'm aware that different people choose not to have children for a variety of reasons. Financially they can't support it (which IMO should be the biggest reason not to have one); perhaps they have physical or mental illnesses that they'd rather not pass on to biological offspring; they choose to not interrupt the peaceful flow of their everyday working lives with a squalling, burping, puking, pooing bundle of inarticulate frustration. I can understand all of these things, believe me.

But they are not me. And I choose otherwise.

So bottom line, for all of you who feel like I'm doing a disservice to my fellow man by bringing yet another human into the world, take your "eco-friendly-minded" judgmentalness and shove it up your ass. And while you're busy doing that, take a minute to turn that judgemental eye inward, and decide how your choices in life have contributed to making society/the world better, as a whole. Are you actively contributing to society? Are your taxes going to where they should, to benefit those in need? Are you working, at all for your fellow man? Do you donate to charity? Do you ever volunteer your time to those less fortunate? Do you rescue unwanted animals from shelters, or do you pay upwards of $800 for custom-bred pets?

I'm going to have children. More than one, because I don't want them to be an only child. Maybe two or three. And I'm going to raise them to be good, moral people, and they are going to be loved and cherished by everyone around them. And whatever "carbon footprint" they leave behind will likely be drowned out by someone in another newly-industrialized country. Did you know the US has been surpassed now, in terms of harmful emissions? ...No, I didn't think you did.

And someday? Who knows. You might even thank me.