For many reasons:
~ @ilana summed it up nicely.
~ My own childhood was highly messed up and I’ve been terrified of perpetuating that cycle. (You can say you won’t… then your child has a tantrum after you’ve had a bad day at work, and it’s just a little too much…)
~ Aside from the spectre of emotional neglect and/or physical abuse, I’ve yet to be financially secure enough (to my own standards) to take proper care of another’s needs and wants.
~ Kids are messy, loud, annoying, and will test you on a regular basis. (I know how everyone says “Oh, but it’s different when it’s your own…” Yeah. Not taking that chance. See #1 above.)
What I want to know is if there are parents out there who have a legitimate reason for having kids. Here are some answers I’ve heard over the years:
~ “Because the Lord wants us to be fruitful and multiply.” (And thank you so much for contributing to things like gridlock, 100 applicants for one job, ever-increasing food production issues, etc.)
~ “So someone will love me.” (“Fully dependent on me” = love? Yikes.)
~ “So they can have the opportunities I didn’t have.” (And if Junior would rather be a poet than a baseball star?)
~ “Because I love my husband/wife.” (And this is the only way you can show that love….?)
Of course, those are the reasons given. Please allow me to indulge my cynical streak a little further here… if actions speak louder than words, the reasons are more like:
~ Because I want a little princess/living doll that I can dress up!
~ There just isn’t enough of ME in this world.
~ If I don’t, I’ll lose status as a female, and that would really hurt my social life.
~ If I don’t, I won’t be perceived as “normal”.
~ I want someone to take care of ME in my old age. (As many abandoned and abused seniors could tell you, offspring is not a guarantee of this.)
~ Because he’s about to leave me. He can’t abandon me if I have his child!
Fortunately, society is starting to move away from the idea that women who choose to not have kids are “selfish”. Which is good, because looking at the last two lists above, I think that label has been mis-assigned!