Is it possible that some people choose not to have children because they understand and enjoy the subtlety of life at its most quiet? They can face the time and space that silence takes up in their own simple, solitary company. I’m one of those people. I hear every day how difficult it is to be a parent – how the kids take up so much space and time in people’s lives, how hectic everything is. But, then in the next breath, those same people go on and on about the 12 different television shows they are “totally hooked on” and how they still haven’t found a job in 12 months (yes, that is the case with at least one of my friends). To hear these people say how stressed they are and then to blame their children is sad. I feel bad for the kids who are put under this kind of burden, and the example they are given about time management and priorities.

What I also don’t understand is that, when people who haven’t yet had children hear parent’s complain like this all of the time, and then those people then choose to have children *anyway*, and then…THEN…they still go on to complain about all the time they no longer have! C’mon, everyone has heard it forever. Parents are strapped to the hilt. I get it. We should all get it. I’ve heard it countless times. And yet, there are still parents out there saying it, as if it’s NEWS! Why did you have children, then??

It seems to me that it’s a badge of honor in the US to completely fill up on activity so that you can skate by life without ever having touched it’s subtlety. And this article totally feeds into that mentality. “Aren’t we so great because we are stressed to the hilt?!” Martyrs, all of them. Pathetic. Life is so full of dull moments, but it seems to me that people are afraid of that. The moments when you are alone, there is nothing to do, and time just ticks. Those moments are much more full than some people realize. But because they don’t realize it, some people think that they should have a family – get married, have children, etc. Because if you do that, then you’ll be guaranteed never to have to feel the subtlety of life again. Instead, every day will be extra-ordinary – a constant thrill ride. What a delusion.

What I’m saying is basically that the reason why people sit there and complain about time, whether a parent or not, is because they are afraid of time in the first place.

So to the naysayers – Whatever. I’m happy, my family is happy. That’s all that matters to us. Our happiness. And we have worked very hard to get to where we are now. My kids will always be around. That’s the way there were raised……..Family first!!!