Think long, think hard. Or just start a family. It don’t matter because when children enter your world they’re the most beautiful things. Not got a pot to piss in, no time for selfish fun and they are a constant worry but I would’nt want it any other way. More beautiful life I say!

@ Dan1980 – Adopt? My brother did to Twins. They’re ace little buggers!

Rumbledethumps is right..

We thought that if we waited until we were ‘ready’ we’d have to wait forever if we were honest with ourselves, so we sacked it all off and got nekkid..
It was a good decision.. The important thing that is all too often overlooked is your faith in each other to be able to make each other laugh, to make each other giggle and shine when hope is lost..
Cos if that sparkle isn’t there it’s going to be exposed and amplified and bonded forever by blood..

Bob-on Yunki.

Over the years I’ve had thoughts of both a positive and negative valence towards having children. I couldn’t imagine myself as a father for some reason.

Cutting a long and not overly interesting story short, I now have a 6-month-old daughter. She’s the best thing to ever happen to me.

PS, I’m 40.

I never wanted kids. My parents split 4 days after my 5th birthday & I grew up not really knowing my dad. Was stereotyped at school (single parent family) bullied & generally treated like shit for most of my school years – I just never wanted to impose that on any other human being.

Spent my formative years earning a decent living (not so thick after all) and spending it all on travel, booze, women & other ‘pastimes’. Work took a hold & I got fully immersed in the whole corporate world of bulls**t & partying until I met mrs Nobby. After a few years we decided kids might be a good idea and Jr was born.

Elation! No feeling on earth like it. Then, at his 6 week check up, we hear that there are some concerns over his heart function – test followed test, followed test only to be told he has a congenital heart condition. I kinda cope ( glass half full disposition) but mrs Nobby’s world falls off a cliff & she ends up in a very dark place.

Me being me, I treat every day with him as (potentially) his last and here we are 11 years later with me exhausted & him riding kids races at events like 24/12, swimming like a fish& running cross country in all weathers with the other grammar school boys.

It’s been a decade of ups and downs but it has been an incredible, educational, eventful and, ultimately, fulfilling times which I wouldn’t swap for anything.

Folk often ask how we cope with but the fact is , he is who he is, he makes us proud and I honestly believe he is my greatest achievement in life.

I still remember my best mate giving me a piece of blank paper when Jr was born – he gave me one month to list all of the aspects of my life t hat hadn’t changed. A month later I gave him back the same blank piece of paper & bought him a pint. As has been said, every single aspect of my existence was better – even if I had to start riding at 4 am post-feed.

Sounds likes your genes will be a real loss for the race. Hopefully, we’ll manage as a species though.

Naah. It’s all going down the pan isn’t it. Obvious really but a shame for all the innocent species dragged down with the human plague. Still, keep breeding and hoovering up those resources at breakneck speed!

Yes, I always want kids but the problem is trying to find some who is willing to combine my DNA with hers to create new Dear Leaders. 😆

JCL You almost sound like an infamous Austrian Leader from the 30s/40s.

I’m with JCL I have seen what sprogs do to people, they make previously sane people into zombies.
How are you?
Little johhny had his first potty poo yesterday.
I said how are you?
“Tests came back and little Chardonnay doesn’t have glue ear”
I said how are you?
Neve mind I’ll catch you later.

They act like its a miracle they threw some mess up a love tunnel and a little soldier burst through a cell wall but it happens millions of times every year. And far too often by the looks of things.

Hmm. Ransos asked who wipes the bottoms when we get old?

Answer: for most people it’s low paid care workers in nursing homes.

The nursing home my grandma is in isn’t even high dependency or dementia. Most of the people in there have kids, very few don’t. So where are their devoted offspring?

Many of them don’t live nearby. Some are busy raising their own kids still, or more likely (like my mum’s siblings) caring for grandchildren while their adult children go back to work. So they can’t take care of their elderly parents. And by the time someone is doubly incontinent, they usually need more specialist nursing care than an untrained adult can give anyway. And a lot of the time, your kids simply won’t want to adjust their lives in order to care for an ageing or sick relative, my own siblings being a case in point at the moment, and have barely bothered to get their heads out of their own asses to call our sick father since he came out of hospital. Guess which adult children end up doing most of the care? Yep, the ones who don’t have kids of their own, because it tends to be expected that they have the capacity and free time to do so by their siblings.

So, if you want your bum wiped in old age, encourage your children not to have children!

Edit: I’m sure there are many good reasons to have kids, but “to have someone wipe my butt when I’m old” is not one of them. Sure, you might get a wonderful devoted son or daughter who will do everything for you, but these days, more often than not, that won’t be the case. Go to any nursing home in the country for proof.

I have seen what sprogs do to people, they make previously sane people into zombies

They don’t.

HTH.

Naah.

No, really, with each post you make on the subject, it really does seem like a loss. Are you sure you won’t have a change of heart. There must be a queue of willing hosts.