Parenting is great. We have an 18-month-old daughter and a 19-day-old son and it’s wonderful… except for the sippy cups that get lost under the couch for days.

Wow, how sad to see such comments. Let this be a place where we can say, yes parenting can be difficult at times but I thank God for entrusting these beautiful children to me. I thank God for my parenthood. Being a parent makes me a better person. And I’m happy to be politically incorrect by saying so!

I would like to say that I think parenting is really hard work. I don’t enjoy it a lot of the time. BUT, I KNOW that God has called me and that my children are a GIFT and whether or not I feel great about it all the time has nothing to do with the value my children have, inherently or for me personally. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL AND INVALUABLE. I suppose the de-valuing of human life that we experience all around us should dispose us to expect such comments, but they are still SHOCKING.

Those anti-parenting quotes are heartbreaking! Thanks Danielle, for standing up for families with such wonderful enthusiasm.  Your positive comments about parenthood makes my day!

Children aren’t always a gift, especially when they bring heartbreak to their parents and others around them with no care about the pain they cause. 

The childfree are actually practicing good stewardship.  We have carefully thought over the situation, and have decided for various reasons that having kids is not an option for us.  I have news for you—it’s not always about hating children (even though for some childfree persons, that is the case).  It is about being realistic and practical.

Raising children isn’t easy, it isn’t always sublime, but it’s real and it can be infused with great grace.  I will grant that it frustrates and causes pain when children faulter, when they reject what good things we set before them, be it values, vegetables or our favorite book. 

But raising human beings isn’t about being realistic or practical or comfortable; it’s about being stretched beyond one’s own limited perception of limits, being pushed to love more, to be more, to imitate God on earth by being the bountiful loving parent who loves even when one is tired, would prefer to be doing something else more glamorous, more important, more worldly, or would at least like to jam in time for a shower sometime that day.

I recently overheard a gentleman in the grocery complaining that children are too expensive and a major financial burden. He then went on to talk about his new BMW. I was tempted to pull this person aside, but I said a silent prayer instead. Unfortunately comments such as these are becoming a social norm.

As a stay-at-home Mom, I have learned to live without some of the material comforts of my past, living simply on one income.  And while finances may be strained at times, I would much rather(and actually did) give up my fancy car to raise my little boy. A BMW never hugged me or told me that it loved me. And a hug and kiss from my son is all I need to feel calm in a stressed out world.

“These kinds of reactions demonstrate something I have long suspected—that it is politically incorrect to say anything positive about having children.”

Yeah…suuure it is. You go on ahead and keep believing that you’re in some kind of persecuted minority if that makes you feel better.

Whenever I see people go on and on about how great and wonderful having children is, it always strikes me as a case of “she doth protest too much”. Who exactly are you trying to convince?

Perhaps the parents who are making these negative comments on how terrible their children are need to take a long, hard look at their parenting styles. Parenting is a full-time job that is often thankless, but it also life-enriching and character-building. My children have faults, but they also have great strengths and I could not imagine life without them. Each person is a gift from God.

I am childfree & lovin’ it!  Nothing gives me greater peace of mind than knowing I don’t have to devote my life, the one & only life I have, to raising yet another life.  Everything parents say we can flip it right back around.  Someone to love & hug you?  Since when is giving birth to YOUR OWN COMPANIONSHIP some kind of honorable thing & something to be desired.  It’s laughable.  Utterly.  Or should I say udderly.

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, and parenthood is no exception.—-But despite all the associated challenges and difficulties, it is an amazing vehicle to bring selflessness, and personal growth to one’s life….And often the rewards are beyond telling.

I find it interesting that the people that I have known that have least enjoyed their children (or have been violently opposed to the idea of children) have been the most on the liberal end of the spectrum.

The ones who have been of the “wish I’d never had them” have tended to look at their children as products with a highly specific outcome in mind, often in terms of material success.  They did “all the right things” for their children, but feel the children don’t do “the right things” in return, and are unsatisfied and angry.  A great pity.

I don’t actually know anyone who has given birth “for companionship.” Personally, I’d pick a companion that didn’t wake me up every 3 hours.;)

I’m not the greatest parent myself, but, when I was sick this week, my kids (six of them, ages 12 to 2)all helped take care of me and the house and each other.  I was really showered with love.  I didn’t have kids so someone would love me, but I did have kids so that there would be more love in the world, and I guess I’m satisfied with my investment, if you want to look at it that way.

That’s great if parenthood reduces one’s blood pressure! Parents work very hard, all day every day, and I can’t think of a group that is more deserving of physical relief and benefits. :)

It seems to me that one’s attitude about children is heavily influenced by whether or not one is ‘Called’, actually, by God, to be a parent. Some people are terrific parents, and I am heartened to see them having many children. Some love their children dearly, but realize that they should not have more than one or two if they want to have a good outcome. Or, perhaps one’s life-path, really, is a bit less straight-forward. For example, some may have a real gift of some kind, like a musical gift, that yearns for expression in the marketplace. So the personal calling would be more a shared scenario between a couple of ‘callings’, really.

Others would love to have children but cannot, for so many reasons. Some who wish they could be good parents, know in their hearts that they would not be. I think a person’s conscience on this should be respected.

Everyone is called by God to something. If you are doing what you feel in your heart you really are cut out to do in this life; then I suspect there is an acceptance of others on their different paths, as well as a gracious acceptance of both the sorrows and joys of your own.

We have children because it’s the outcome of the intimacy that belongs only in marriage. We have children because we love. When we give ourselves to one another fully without contraception, children are the fruit of our love for one another. They are like us in a gratifying way, and they are their own distinct selves in another (still endearing) way.  We don’t have children for what they do for us. But having a child is the single most creative and joy giving thing a person can ever do. In the same measure that you give, you shall get. When you give only to yourself, you get only your own neurotic self in return. When you give to others, you are enlarged.