Few days ago, someone asked me, “Would you want to have kids in the future?”
I answered, “Well, it depends whether I could afford it or trust myself to raise it.”
Well, if you think it’s a funny answer because normally people would say yes or no. But these days, really...it depends whether you could afford it or devoted yourself to taking care of the child. It’s a lot of responsibilities taking care of a child. My parents always say, “You will soon know the burden of raising a child when you own one.”
Well, I don’t need to own one but I roughly know how tedious a task it would be. The responsibilities begin the moment you’re carrying a little bean in your tummy. You have to be careful of what you eat, drink or do. Once you give birth to the little one plus enduring the labour pains, another set of responsibilities begin. Your task is to support the little one with everything. Nursing it, feeding it, teaching it and all sort of things you do to mould the little one into the person you hope it grows to be.
Not sure whether I make sense at the last part...but during the process on taking care of the little one, you have endure sleepless nights and changing diapers...but once the little one grows out of the diapers, you have to make sure the little one keeps their clothes on! Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration but I did know a little one that refuses to keep his clothes on. After their toddler years, they start to demand more from you...money-wise of course. They need this and that, their homework requires them to build a transformer and they need materials, they have ballet lessons, art lessons, music lesson or whatever lessons they want to attend plus we must not forget if they have tuition classes! So here you become their loyal little driver, chauffeuring them from north to south.
Then reaching to the age where they’re a teenager. The rebellious stage, they won’t listen to you, they yell at you, they do all sort of things you do when you’re a teenager. You ground them, wallop their sorry little butts, cut their allowances, and make sure they have more chores to do or something to punish them. Making sure they learn their lesson in hopes that they wouldn’t repeat the same mistake.
There’s a lot of process we have to go through emotionally, mentally and physically during the process of raising a child. A parent must be strong to endure the shits through thick and thin. Worrying about the cost they have to support when raising a child or whatever stuffs they need to do...
On the other hand, some might have doubts because of the pain that we women have to endure. Carrying another life inside of us which would add extra weight to our body, some of us would start feeling fat, suffer from hair loss or any other itty gritty bit that we get during our pregnancy...
But all in all, it’s a joyous thing to give birth to life and bringing them into the planet. Watching them grow and sharing happiness and sadness together...and when you grow old, you will have someone to keep you company, to take care of you in return.
