{"id":702,"date":"2010-06-02T22:52:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T17:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/dad\/?p=702"},"modified":"2010-06-02T22:52:48","modified_gmt":"2010-06-02T17:22:48","slug":"on-being-childfree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/2010\/06\/on-being-childfree\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being ChildFree"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good friend recently introduced me to a fantastic\u00a0site “on being child-free<\/a>“.\u00a0 Frankly, up until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard<\/em> of the phrase!\u00a0 I’m a parent of two adorable children, and have a number of friends who aren’t married, and don’t have kids yet.\u00a0 But, I’ve never thought of them as having consciously opted to be ‘child-free’… I always figured, it was a matter of “when”, not “if”!<\/p>\n

So, it was with much interest and enthusiasm that I devoured whatever I could read on the subject.\u00a0 This would be an opportunity for me to learn something from an entirely new perspective – not an easy thing to come by, these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I read the Top 100 reasons not to have Kids<\/a>, and went through the Best FAQ page on being Childfree<\/a>, and understood what it means to say Yes to ChildFreedom<\/a>.\u00a0 And, once I did all that, I was able to really appreciate the arguments of the other side.<\/p>\n

I fully agree with my friend – Joy<\/a> – on the fact that people will spend hours, days, even months researching before buying an expensive gadget, but won\u2019t stop to think before bringing another human<\/em> to this planet!\u00a0 More people need to think about what it means to have children, consciously, before it “happens” to them.\u00a0 And, making an informed decision is a great start indeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, there is also an argument against making rational arguments.\u00a0\u00a0Behavioural studies show that, in most situations, we humans have already decided which course we want to pursue in a matter of seconds (or milliseconds).\u00a0 We then go about finding enough data (pros and cons) to basically support our choices.\u00a0 (We both know that you can find enough data to support pretty much any <\/em>argument, don’t we?!)<\/p>\n

I’m not saying every one should<\/em> be a parent.\u00a0 Frankly, I think they ought to issue valid licenses for parents!\u00a0 And, I do agree that every couple (every individual?) should be able to choose their own path, irrespective of what society <\/em>thinks is the acceptable norm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, the experience of being a parent is unlike any other.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There’s something magical about being a parent to a child that can make you appreciate Life in all it has to offer…\u00a0 It’s one of the rare things in life where the sum of its parts is not as much as its whole.\u00a0 Therefore, any list of Top 100 reasons or the likes will not even come close to experiencing the sheer joy of holding a newborn <\/em>in your hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The choice should be your’s.\u00a0 And, it should be an informed one.\u00a0 Remember though, after all is said and done, the heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of… John Dryden<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Recommended reading: Happily Childfree<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good friend recently introduced me to a fantastic\u00a0site “on being child-free“.\u00a0 Frankly, up until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-better-parenting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/beingdad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}