I am have no plans to become a parent. Since coming to believe in zero population growth, it doesn't make sense to me to add more people to a planet already over stressed with too many people and not enough resources. But for those who decide that they must replicate themselves, I wish that they would teach their child just 1 major lesson.

That they should not expect a handout.
We are no longer a nation of a hand up, but have all about the hand out. It can be seen in so many ways and areas, from the corporate ceos expecting the big bonuses to the welfare mother expecting assistance raising her kids to the 15 year old girl expecting the big sweet 16 party. It simply amazes me that so many people have decided that they are so special that the world around them should cater to their needs. Our society has become one of what can I get. No one wants to think about their fellow man needs and how their own selfish actions can effect those around them. If more people were worried about everyone else around them and how actions would effect them, this planet might actually be worth saving.

Pregnancy should be a crime. All too many people have children who have no time, money or desire to be parents.

pregnant silhouette

It is my believe that to become a parent, you should have to have a license. Not only would you be required to attended parenting classes to educate you on the reality of raising children, but you would also have psychological tests to determine your competence in raising happy, healthy, well adjusted children. There would be intensive background checks and yearly updates that would have to be maintained.

Does this sound rather extreme? I don't think it is. I see all too many children who are abandoned and abused, who didn't ask for that life. The welfare system is overloaded with people who continue to have children to keep getting their monthly subsidies. If having children was no longer a right, but turned into a priviledge I believe a lot of problems could be solved.

Obviously, there will be those who will abuse and try to cheat the system, but that will always be the case as long as human beings have free will. That can't be changed. I am not suggesting limiting the number of children a family can have, but whether they should be allowed to have children period.

Ask yourself how many children are removed from abusive families ever year. How much does it cost in foster care, medical care, attorney fees, court costs, case manager costs and all the miscellanious costs associated with these children not being with their families? And whether they are eventually reunified with their family or the parental rights are terminated and they are put up for adoption, there is ongoing costs related to follow ups and tracking the child. Even if the child is adopted out, most children are eligible to recieve subsidies that continue on until they are 18 years old.

Billions of dollars is spent every year, in a single state, on investigating abuse, educating parents, providing counseling for families, foster care, substance abuse, and even providing housing for families. If even half these families had education and/or screening BEFORE having the children, we could save trillions of dollars in the US alone.

This would also provide a passive type of population control, with a natural lessening the use of natural resources. Add in the side effect of making abortion a non-issue. If you have to go through classes, screenings and testing to get a license to have a child, you aren't going to be aborting a child you have had to go through all this for.

I have always found I do my best writing at a keyboard. It is so much easier to make changes and if you are a half-way decent typist you can usually keep up fairly well with your thoughts. By writing out your thoughts it takes longer and making corrections can be a nightmare. As someone who speaks entirely different than I write, most times I need to be able to go back and make corrections to grammar and sentence structure.