Another example I thought of (@hominid this might be something you heard before) is immigrant parents sometimes are credited with sacrificing everything so their children can have a better life. I’m sure they do want their children to have a good life, even a better life then they had, I am not saying they don’t, but they probably wanted to get out of dodge for themselves too. When their child has a better life, a more prosperous life, specifically money, then does the child owe it to their parent to use their money to give their parent a better life financially? Pay some bills or move them out of where they live now to a better place?
I do place a lot of importance on family bonds (assuming there is no abuse, I am just talking about a typical family situation) and that involves sometimes doing things because you know the other person needs it or wants it. Maybe you don’t need to call your mom every Sunday to feel close to her, but if it is the minimum for her to feel loved and appreciated, probably any child can manage it.
I wouldn’t call it sacrifice necessarily, but I think most parents do always have their children in their thoughts when they are raising them. They often do what they think is best for their children, even if it means they would prefer not to have to do whatever the thing is at the time. Anything from baking cookies, working an extra job so they can attend a better school, reading Curious George 349 times until she moves on to a different book, putting her art all over the house, taking her to your MIL’s house when you really don’t get along with her very well. Those things a parent does should at minimum make us care about their happiness. For a lot of parents there is at least some part of them that ties their happiness to their children. It’s horrible when it is extreme, the burden on the child, even an adult child, it can really suck, but I thinking having some sort of appreciation for what your parents did or tried to do Is a reasonable thing. I think it helps the adult child too, because focusing on those things can make the child themselves happier.
Like anything, I think any extreme is bad. There is some sort of middle ground that makes sense to me.
Having said all that, I think most people have their children for fairly shelfish reasons. The child doesn’t ask to be born. The person wants the experience of being a parent, or they have what seems like some innate drive to procreate. Some think well into the future, worrying that when they are older there will be no one to help take care of them, or that it would be very lonely without children. They feel there will be something missing in their life, their own life, if they don’t have children. I don’t think many people in the US feel they need to have children to better the world or keep the human race going. Even parents who adopt, they adopt usually because they want children.