Don't Take My Word For It

Listen to what she has to say in the debate to add the joys and struggles of (more) children to your family:

Parenthood is Worth the Risks--September 2, 1980

There's at least one in every crowd, the woman who doesn't want to bring a child into "this lousy, mixed-up world."
I met one the other night who said children were just ego trips for parents who like to see their own image staring back at them over the breakfast table. She added, "I can't come up with one reason for having them."
What a pity. According to my children, there were a lot of reasons I had them.
I needed a personal slave: someone to answer the phone, get my sweater, find my glasses, get my keys out of the door, unload the groceries, go to the store, let the dog out and move the hose.
I needed someone arouind the house to eat the leftovers the dog wouldn't touch.
I needed someone to shove out of the car to throw his body over the last picnic table while we found a place to park.
I needed a live-in who would assist in raising a younger brother and sister by taking them to the bathroom every five minutes and sitting with them for free on New Year's Eve.
I needed an excuse for my saddlebag hips and flabby upper arms.
I needed material for the Christmas newsletter and a three-times-a-week column.
I needed someone to mail letters for me when it rained.
I needed someone to practice medicine on. ("Turn down that record or you'll go deaf!")
I needed someone to spy on and make me feel important.

That's their story. Mine is even more biased.

I brought children into this lousy, mixed-up world because when you love someone and they love you back, the world doesn't look that lousy or seem that mixed-up.
I gave them life because they have the same right I was given to make up their own minds as to what makes a good or a bad world.
More than an image over the breakfast table, they are special to this universe now and will be long after I am gone.
Some people must take the risk of being a parent. If we don't, who will be left to listen to the young people who lament, "I don't want to bring children into this lousy, mixed-up world"?

This is the second post in a series on our choice to parent a large family.