Does having kids give meaning and purpose to your life?
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In a sense. The meaning and purpose will revolve around your kids. It's hard work and it's non-stop (you don't get time off from being a parent). It is fulfilling though and do bring about a lot of joy.
Meaning and joy - yes. Horrific “work hours” - also yes. Pros and cons just like other decisions in life. PROs: added indescribable meaning and joy to our lives that my spouse and I never experienced. When this little bundle smiles and babbles in the morning, the whole world smiles at you. Give a better sense of purpose and priority that enables you to say no to the stuff you knew it’s not the best for you in the long run, but do it because of temp gain. CONs: workload wise, imagine adding another full time job to your current one. Physically super demanding. Plus, the new boss wakes you up every three hours for the first 1-3 years. Also, if you love to travel, better be okay with newly applied restrictions and find ways to accommodate. Doable, but not the easiest. e.g. a child needs a carseat/booster until 8 yo. Conclusion: Amazing if you can pull it. But one of the partners is unsure of it, reconsider. Do your DD. Ask new parents around you about their hardships. They’ll give you the other side of the story. Also, if you’re a woman, 1) don’t forget that you’re the “host” whether you like it or not. You’ll hear labor horror stories. I have mine as well, but surprisingly you move on so quickly with baby keeping you busy and happy. 2) your career does get a greater hit than your spouse’s during/after the pregnancy inevitably.
as a recent father, i can say that no feeling compares to the feeling u get to see ur baby smile at u when he/she opens his/her eyes first thing in the morning
That said, people without kids are happier. Just because you have meaning, doesn't mean you are happier. :-) Despite having a good few, I often wonder how cool my life would have been without kids. My environmental footprint would have been a lot lower, that's for sure.
if we all cared about environmental footprint no one on earth should have kids and we should just let our entire human species die out in 100 years in an effort to save this earth and let it exist with animals only. But the entire existence of life was an accident probably. Originally this was a lifeless planet of carbon and other materials. Just a planet sitting there doing nothing. Now imagine this lifeless planet was full of pollution. Who cares? Nothing would be alive to care one way or the other.
The only way to save the planet is to remove all humans ? That's probably going too far. With modern tech, we could easily support a billion people, and leave a majority of the biosphere diverse.
Not any more than not having kids
Yes.
Nah, having kids is overrated. To continue human existence, the BS you're talking about has been propagated through generations. Your life's meaning isn't defined by chance.
I had kids in very late 30’s. I now realize I wasted a decade of my life waiting to be ready.
Yes if you're very very lucky. For the majority, kids just grow up to be assholes, throw tantrums, say fuck you to their parents all the time, spend all their day on Instagram snapchat and tiktok, get depressed even though we provide them everything, waste tuition and then drop out of college, do drugs in their teens and then don't get a job. Then stop talking to you once they hit 20s. It's pretty much out of a parent's control. What if your kid becomes one of them? That's the most likely outcome.
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No. They are awesome and fantastic and added purpose, but you'd best find already before jumping into that pool. It can be a rocky ride. You'll need more than kids to keep you plugging along.
For me personally my two children give me more meaning than anything else in life. More than I ever thought possible. That being said, I’m not sure why you’re asking, but if you’re looking for meaning in your life I wouldn’t start with having kids to try and find it. Figure out who you are and what you really want in life. Then you’ll know if having kids will give you deeper meaning or will burden you down. It isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine.
Are you guys still hiring for kernel engineers? Can you give me a referral
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