I really love your thoughts around this, the fact of the harm of humans on the environment, the deliberate nature of so many to choose NOT to have children. It is the right choice for them, to be sure. As much as I didn't want to have children in my 20's after raising a million siblings, I did. And it was a conscious choice I have never regretted. I had four of the most amazing humans that I have ever known.

As you say, we do not know our Selves well enough to be good parents. It is true. So often, we do not. However, some of us do. We were well aware of who we were at a young age, our gifts, talents, abilities, drives, etc. Even what we can offer the world was apparent. I was lucky that way. When I had kids, life shifted. I became MORE. I became more of so many things I had been before. Everything went more deeply. I taught everything that I had learned and learned with them. We were equals. We philosophized and laughed and learned together about the world and the mess of life.

And we still are. There is nothing easy about parenting. It is for only those who know the cost of self-sacrifice and are willing to live with it, for decades. I see it a lot like I see homeschooling. If you do NOT feel called to it, please don't do it. You fuck it up and a generation of kids is screwed. Parenting is the same, really. We do our best and mess up no matter. But, being conscious about it all is imperative.

And, through having children, I learned what a narcissistic man I married. Only after my attention had to go elsewhere could I have seen that. And my children have been my guard dogs and protectors along this messy path. They have been my saviours in some ways, as much as I wish it were different. (We all have good therapists, btw:))

Thanks for the encouragement to read this!!