Mild rant. I don't want kids, but now im at that age where all my stepsisters, sister and close friend all have kids now. My last childless stepsister is pregnant and they want to facetime the gender reveal. I just can't feign my excitement for this shit anymore. oh yay, another white american baby, how special. I guess she really just made the mistake of having a kid after the people i care about most(sister and close friend) already had kids so i just don't care anymore(in addition to not being close with my stepsisters, our parents married and we were all young adults basically).
But this got me thinking about how people talk about their pregnancies. The selfless reason is bringing a life into the world(lol) but i literally can't think of another selfless reason. They will want the kid to be like them, they will try to raise it like them, they probably also are thinking about how a child can care for them when they are older. Two people think they are really great and made something super special and im fucking over it.
Having a kid so there is someone to take care of you is the most common thing I hear, and in the year 2022 that's such a ridiculous gamble. My parents are around 70 and I can still barely take care of myself at 35.
Last I checked, raising a child to adulthood costs an average of like $500k or something ridiculous like that, so you are basically gambling that amount on the kid A) not moving away, B) not ending up hating you for any reason within or beyond your control, and C) being financially secure enough in adulthood to take care of you in addition to themselves and any children they may have.