You see these testimonials online from parents who complain endlessly about how miserable parenting was for them. How horrible their children are. How exhausted they are. How much they suffered. How m...
I don't know. Maybe.
I personally had great parents who loved and supported me, and never once said a negative word about their role as parents. Yet I never had any desire for the marriage and family lifestyle. It's not for everyone. My mom and dad understood that, and never gave me any grief for my decision.
It's not enough to just hide the drudgery of parenting from one's own children and other potential parents by not speaking of it. To convince people to breed, you really have to make them believe that there are real upsides in it for them. That's much harder to pull off. The reasons for having large families in my grandparents' day (more free labor for the farm, etc.) just don't exist today, at least not as far as I can tell.
I personally had great parents who loved and supported me, and never once said a negative word about their role as parents. Yet I never had any desire for the marriage and family lifestyle. It's not for everyone. My mom and dad understood that, and never gave me any grief for my decision.
It's not enough to just hide the drudgery of parenting from one's own children and other potential parents by not speaking of it. To convince people to breed, you really have to make them believe that there are real upsides in it for them. That's much harder to pull off. The reasons for having large families in my grandparents' day (more free labor for the farm, etc.) just don't exist today, at least not as far as I can tell.
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