Can having children make you a better person?

That's not true of the terrible parents though is it. It's not true of the parents of all the children than end up taken into care.

To claim that having a child ALWAYS makes someone a better person is nonsense.

Well of course it's nonsense, everyone knows that. People who have their children taken into care sometimes have had terrible things happen to them, but most were probably bad people way before they had kids. As Keanu Reeves said in Parenthood, "You need a license to drive a car or catch a fish but anyone can be a parent!"

My husband and I love our children and can't imagine our lives without them, but everyone is different and I'm sure there are those who wish they'd never reproduced.

---------- Post added 24-09-2016 at 22:29 ----------

Having children will make you a more tired person, for sure!

Poorer, too.

Not if you're a "celebrity"... Beckham, that chef who keeps reproducing, and, closer to home, Toby (aren't I fertile) Foster. "My kids..."

Zzzzzzz...

er ..... surely that would make two of us? Yes, a 'd' instead of a 'g'.

 

Or is it just your style to plagiarise everything you tap out on here?

 

Didn't realise you were the sensitive type so easily wounded by 'armchair' psychology'. Clearly, I more than hit a nerve. Perhaps you actually need to grow a thicker skin? Or just grow up. After all, that makes having children a whole lot easier.

Well. He seems nice!

I was going to start it with "Do" instead of "Can" if that makes a difference. I'm not saying it in a Andrea Leadsom, mother knows best sort of way. My sister had similar smarts to me as kids, maybe a tad more, but has excelled me in every measure you want to use since we both left school. The key difference since adulthood is kids and/or a stable relationship.

 

Would I have achieved more had I sired a child? I don't have to worry about anyone else as such, would that extra responsibility have given me the extra push?

I think having kids doesn't necessarily mean someone wI'll achieve more but it definitely makes you a better person.

Kids teach you as much about yourself as you teach them.

it definitely makes you a better person.

 

All the parents that abuse their children would seem to indicate that you're wrong.

All the parents that abuse their children would seem to indicate that you're wrong.

It's comments like this that make me keep away from this site!

There's loads of things in life that can make you a better person. Having kids i's definitely one of them. If it doesn't make you a better person, then you're doing it wrong!

It's not in any way guaranteed to make you a better person is it.

It's not in any way guaranteed to make you a better person is it.

It is if you do the job correctly

There are so many variables it's impossible to say yes or no.

 

Sure, for some people having a child may bring a different perception of love, pride or responsibility that they had not experienced before and it may change them for the better. For others, a child may be a burden or even a regret.

 

From my own personal experience, I'd say NOT having a child has made me a better person. I'm more in tune with myself and with my partner. I care for elderly relatives and that's brought about a whole heap of emotions I've had to learn to deal with.

 

I think these days, there are some people who seem to think that having children makes them more special than everyone else and those same people seem to think that childless / childfree people are somehow devoid of feeling. All this "you'll never know unconditional love unless you have a child" really winds me up!

The above sums it up for me, pretty much.

S x

in answer to the OP's question - being the mother of 3 children has made me a far less selfish person without a doubt.

I have never felt that being a parent has made me any more 'special' than someone who doesn't have children.

I do observe though that many young women today who are pregnant or have children seem to think that it does - just an observation.