750 Words: Day 1

A Story by Jordan Swift

Writing Topic: "If and when I raise children, I'll never..."

I do not consistently plan to have children. I use the word consistently, estimating 10-20% of the time I have the sudden urge to want my own offspring, yet the remaining percentage I cannot even fathom the thought of reproducing my own kids and raising them. I do in fact want a wife, I want to not be lonely the remainder of my life, in the off chance I can find someone who will satisfy my picky needs in a female; I’ll marry her. I think this will be most difficult, simply being that women a naturally going to want children one day, I have heard the same for men but I can’t see it happening for me.

I think I will have a tough time finding a girl who views this topic in synch with me, basically.

There are reasons, specific and understandable ones, that I can identify to back up my decision to not reproduce and have children. It is not something I am stating to sound different, or because I want attention of any kind, I simply believe life can be much more enjoyable without having to strain because you were not prepared to support yourself, your wife, and four kids.

So, to start, I would rather do other things with my money…which is almost disgustingly selfish but I worked very hard and went through hell and back during college to obtain my degree to do what I wanted to do in my later life.

Finances, would be the proper “term” for my list of reasons why I don’t want children. Think about this, think about how many times your parents, or parent, have spent money on you. The list is phenomenally long and would take me the entire 750 words to explain how much that would be. I haven’t done research or looked up statistics to see how much per year are spent on kids, I already know the answer: A LOT. So much in fact, you could most likely, by the time you and your spouse have worked for five years and saved money, travel anywhere you wanted in the world. This is something I do not plan to miss out on and is something I have somewhat dedicated myself into believing, I want to see the world with my girl and that is about it. I am going to be a teacher, I plan to travel during all my breaks. I plan to save money and do things for me and do them with the love of my life. I do not want to fool with raising another human being, I often fear I will miss out on what I value most…my life.

Money is my main reason why I do not prefer children of my own, but it is not the only idea as to why that is inside my head. I have an irate fear of having kids because no matter how good a job you and your spouse do of raising a child, they will have their own life eventually and will make their own choices; ones that often have no reflection on your parenting ability. From the outside looking in, a problem child is directly blamed on how well or badly the parents did at teaching that kid right from wrong. From the inside looking out, a problem child is directly blamed on the kid him/herself and the decisions they have made in the latter part of their young adult or late teenage years of their life. For example, my brother, was raised in the same household as me with the same parents as me, everything as far as how we were raised and the morals in which we were taught was identical. Our lives in the present time? Completely different, so dissimilar in fact, you wouldn’t even guess we were related (other than very identical physical features). So, who can be to blame for this? I think it depends on who you’re asking, and what their point of view is on these kinds of struggles.

To make a long story short, I have a chronic apprehension this same situation will happen to me as a parent, and when it does there is no one else to blame but yourself.

I find myself pondering on the thought of having kids of my own almost every day, nothing too crazy or obsessive, but the idea does walk into my mind quite often. Yet the response is the same: no thank you.