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From: ellis@FLAIRMAX.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Children
Message-ID: <215@FLAIRMAX.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Sep-83 20:44:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: FLAIRMAX.215
Posted: Fri Sep  9 20:44:07 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Sep-83 01:33:59 EDT
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 39

Re: Child nurturing as one's highest achievement, superior genes, &c.

Admittedly, there are too many people in this world. Most advanced nations,
however, have their populations well under control, such that most
couples can have one or two children. Sadly, most of the `enlightened'
people I know, those who would probably produce the most creative children,
have decided not to have families. Too bad...

And the possession of unusual or valuable genes, nice though it may be,
is clearly only part of the issue. Equally (more?) important is the quality
and amount of attention a child would likely receive from you. 

If you'd send your children to daycare centers their first six years, why
have them at all? These first six years comprise the most fascinating event
in the world, and yet somehow our society (including many in the
progressive vanguard) believe that they should be spent in mass production.
What are we saying about ourselves when self creation is treated as a
menial task, not worthy of attention from the best minds?  It's sad how
little creative effort most parents devote to their offspring.

And if you'd have children out of some ugly sense of duty, please note
that here's one person who feels it's your duty to be sterilized
immediately. Duty is a cheap substitute for genuine interest/love.

Almost everyone hopes they'll make some great contribution to this world.
But we can't all be Einsteins or Stravinskys -- which takes equal amounts
of luck and creativity, anyway.

Face it, most people's professional contributions to this world are totally
forgettable, and hardly equal to the existence of one reasonably happy
person. Think of all that life force most parents pour into their
insignificant careers while their children are being treated facelessly by
some institution. This, I believe, is the source of the worst problems in
the `advanced nations' today.

-michael

-ps  Charlie@cca, how does this conversation `reinforce undesirable
     stereotypes'? I feel men should be househusbands 3 years per child!