99.99999% of people will never be remembered by anyone but their children.
If you're 25 and you're not famous yet it's very unlikely it's in the cards for you.
Almost all of society's problems are directly related to this new narcissism where everyone alive thinks their special or would be if some "ism" wasn't keeping them down.
Family is everything for almost everyone.
When you're on your death bed you won't be wishing you got drunk more or stayed late at work more to to get the meaningless promotion.
Given a choice between an incredibly tiny amount of fame (being remembered by your children and nobody else) and reaching your potential, I'd pick reaching my potential. And this is coming from someone who will never run a sub 15 5K, make over 400K a year, or become world-class in any sport or activity.
You think you can reach your potential without being a father?
So yeah, life gets harder and time becomes more scarce, but having kids unlocks an emotion stronger and more powerful than anything you will ever experience otherwise. If you don’t have kids, you’re missing in something absolutely incredible.
The negatives of having kids are well-known, but the positives are always shrouded in some type of nebulous magical pixie dust that you won't get unless you have kids. It's like those stories where the main character crosses oceans, fights monsters, and climbs mountains to find a box in a hidden temple that can make him a living god. When he finally gets that box and opens it, there is nothing besides an empty platitude on a piece of paper with some lame saying like "only you can change the world".
Sorry, I'm not buying it. When you buy a car, you'd be crazy to overlook the negatives and buy it on vibes, but when it comes to having kids, all that logic goes out the window. And a car is far less of a commitment than a kid.
Smarter people are capable of multitasking. A powerful computer can run multiple programs at once while downloading a bunch of files while streaming a movie on one screen and playing a game on the other.
People like yourself are like the old 100MHz computers. You can only do one thing at a time and you're not even very good at the one thing.
Yes, how fulfilling I’m convinced your life is.
Yes, I disagree with you about the meaning of life and use my free time in a manner you don't like, therefore my life must be unfulfilled.
It's probably for the best that never have children.
Given a choice between an incredibly tiny amount of fame (being remembered by your children and nobody else) and reaching your potential, I'd pick reaching my potential. And this is coming from someone who will never run a sub 15 5K, make over 400K a year, or become world-class in any sport or activity.
You think you can reach your potential without being a father?
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.
But I do know that if I remain childfree, I'd be a lot closer to reaching my potential than if I were to have kids. There are only 168 hours in a week, and every hour spent on kids is an hour that can't be spent on running, career, and any other hobbies or goals you may be interested in.
You think you can reach your potential without being a father?
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.
But I do know that if I remain childfree, I'd be a lot closer to reaching my potential than if I were to have kids. There are only 168 hours in a week, and every hour spent on kids is an hour that can't be spent on running, career, and any other hobbies or goals you may be interested in.
You missed my point. Realizing your true potential requires fatherhood. Not hours devoted to a hobby.
By the time you graduate college, you only have 50ish years of good health left if you take care of yourself. That may sound like a lot to some of you younger folks, but during those years, a third of your day will be spent sleeping, another third of your day will be spent working, and most of the remaining third will be spent on commuting, chores, grocery shopping, home maintenance, and the like.
That leaves you with precious little time to do the things you really enjoy, and there are literally thousands of fun hobbies and activities out there. You can casually dabble in a tiny fraction of them, and before you know it, all your free time in the week is gone, and you have house work and paid work that needs to get done. Blink an eye, and the year is gone. Blink a few more times, and you're an old retired person with more time but no energy to climb that mountain, surf that wave, or backpack around that quaint faraway region of the world that you've always wanted to immerse yourself in but never had the vacation time for.
Blink once more, and you're now on your deathbed wishing you ran that ultramarathon or took that motorcycle or RV trip across the country. Or maybe you're a homebody who aspired to compose a one-hit wonder or write the next Great American Novel. Either way, your life is over, and you'll never have the chance again.
With that said, why the hell would you want to spend your very limited time on Earth following the conventional lifescript of marriage, McMansions, a 5-decade career, and 2-3 kids? F*** that, I'm retiring before 50 and will engage in as much of my hobbies as I can, while I still can.
Spoken like a very mature 12 year old. You got this little man!
By the time you graduate college, you only have 50ish years of good health left if you take care of yourself. That may sound like a lot to some of you younger folks, but during those years, a third of your day will be spent sleeping, another third of your day will be spent working, and most of the remaining third will be spent on commuting, chores, grocery shopping, home maintenance, and the like.
That leaves you with precious little time to do the things you really enjoy, and there are literally thousands of fun hobbies and activities out there. You can casually dabble in a tiny fraction of them, and before you know it, all your free time in the week is gone, and you have house work and paid work that needs to get done. Blink an eye, and the year is gone. Blink a few more times, and you're an old retired person with more time but no energy to climb that mountain, surf that wave, or backpack around that quaint faraway region of the world that you've always wanted to immerse yourself in but never had the vacation time for.
Blink once more, and you're now on your deathbed wishing you ran that ultramarathon or took that motorcycle or RV trip across the country. Or maybe you're a homebody who aspired to compose a one-hit wonder or write the next Great American Novel. Either way, your life is over, and you'll never have the chance again.
With that said, why the hell would you want to spend your very limited time on Earth following the conventional lifescript of marriage, McMansions, a 5-decade career, and 2-3 kids? F*** that, I'm retiring before 50 and will engage in as much of my hobbies as I can, while I still can.
Spoken like a very mature 12 year old. You got this little man!
At least he sounds like a very mature 12 year old. You sound like a very immature 10 year old.
I am 53, and going on vacations and celebrating accomplishments, etc with my adult children.
Unless you're independently wealthy, you won't have enough vacation time/PTO to fully explore the places you want to visit. That problem is compounded if you have kids.
Heck, I get 3 weeks off a year and a 4-day workweek, and I'm not even close to hitting most of my travel goals. And I have zero interest in visiting most of the world (who wants to go to Paraguay?) or going to overcrowded tourist traps. I've even done things like flying out on Thursday night and returning on early Monday morning to conserve vacation time, and it's still not enough.
Family is everything. Many people worry about whether they are going to heaven or hell. If you don't have kids, you're almost guaranteed to experience hell on earth.
Imagine being in your 80s and unable to walk on your own while suffering from dementia. The staff taking care of you in your crappy nursing home don't give a damn about you and treat you like trash. Your wife left you a long time ago because you're a loser. Your friends are all either dead, worse off than you, or unaware of your situation. What could have saved you from this hell? Your children who love you to death because you are an awesome father. That's who.
If you live to be 80, Jesus' alleged birth was only 25 lifetimes ago. I am middle-aged, and elementary school feels like yesterday to me. Tomorrow, you are going to be old and frail. Be prepared.
I think it really depends on what you see as fulfilling life. If you see a fulfilling life as all of these experiences of traveling and seeing new places, having kids may make that difficult. or perhaps, you may actually want kids as you want to experience traveling with kids as it’s incredible feeling seeing it in kids viewpoint more than from your perspective.
i was very indifferent with wanting kids when I was younger. I thought about strain in finances and whatnot. But it’s been an awesome journey so far.
it helps that my kid is somewhat like myself where he really enjoys sports and very athletic taking more of his mom’s side of athleticism. So, it’s been fun coaching and enjoy watching him develop to much higher potential than myself.
i really enjoy watching him develop and get better at what he does. Most people may not enjoy that. But I do, and makes all of these financial sacrifices and time worth it.
Crazy talk. My kids are the greatest part of my life. Nothing quite like a house full of love ❤️. But you’ll do you and I’ll do me. Biggest regret of my life is not starting sooner.
perhaps, you may actually want kids as you want to experience traveling with kids as it’s incredible feeling seeing it in kids viewpoint more than from your perspective.
You're right that travelling with kids is a different perspective.
The typical vacation with kids involves going to Disneyland, stopping the car every half hour for pee breaks, and listening to "are we there yet?" every 5 minutes of the journey. When you finally get there, you'll be buying overpriced junk food and trinkets, waiting an hour to get a picture with Mickey Mouse, and riding the same boring two rides over and over again.
The typical vacation with adults involves backcountry skiing or hiking, wine tasting, and visiting fine art galleries and historical sites. I may not enjoy all of those activities, but it sure beats that hellish Disneyland trip.