Having children?

When your children are young and new, they are almost always a joy. They look at you as if their world revolves around you and they are your one loving focus. Then they get older.

Once your child enters school, you will go through a change in your child'seye in which you appear to know less and less every year and what you do know is worth less and less. They forget that you were the guide that got them through to enter school. They forget that your stories of the past were how they learned a great many things.

The older they get, the wider the gulf becomes and the more they listen to their friends, TV, the internet, and just about any and everyone except you. This comes to a crowning point in their teens when they get their first job, their first license, their first car, and they begin to juggle job, friends, school, activities, and start to understand why you have been so exhausted for so long. Then, for the most part, the gulf narrows and you get your children back.

However, while the gulf is at its widest it can make you wonder what you were thinking when you decided to have kids. Its not as if we have a shortage of people in our lives making us feel like we don't really know anythings, didwe really have to give birth to one we are "stuck" with for so many years.

Two of my kids are coming back from their personal "gulf wars" with me and the third has never really developed the gulf that the others did. We have come to a point in which I mostly am glad again that I had them. However, there are still moments.

I really didn't like most children before I became pregnant. In fact I found most children annoying. When my hubby and I found out I was pregnant I was super worried at first...how could I be a mother when I can't stand to be around anyone under 15. But let me tell you...the first time that I heard my little girl's heartbeat I fell in love. Since then I have been feeling much more maternal. I have actually even offered to babysit a friend's 6-year-old. My baby girl wil be born in a few weeks and I cant wait to meet her. She is going to be the joy of my life. I already feel such a connection with her.

Wow! What a question. I think people raise their kids according to their own value system. My sister is a very vain, self-absorbed person. Her kids get what is left after she has her way. My best friend always puts her kids first. I know people that didn't want to have kids because they worry they won't be any good at it. To me that is a sign that they care enough to be good parents. My husband and I had decided not to have children, but then we did. It is the best thing ever. My work used to be first. I went in early and left late. Now, I leave as soon as I can. Just remember having kids is all about them and not about you.

I am much happier after my daughter.

However, I'm much more tired, busy, and stressed out.

Life CHANGES.....in a way that no one can put into words. You may have almost no money but if your son or daughter needed something you would literally stop eating for them just so they could have what they needed....that is the best example I can think of.

wake up can't answer this question since he has only seen one side ...NOT having any kids. He sounds bitter to me, maybe he was a bad kid.

There is nothing like the pure joy and happiness a child brings to your life...even when they are a pain in the but, it's a small price to pay for so much unconditional love that they give! Can't really even explain the difference before and after i had my son, it makes everything seem more brilliant and life is just so much brighter!

I am so much happier now that I have a family. Yeah sometimes things are pretty rough, but I wouldn't chang it for the world. Yes for me they are my main focus, besides my husband. But I'm so much happier w/ my babies here.

I had my first at a young age, I have always felt as though my two are the light of my life. I am guaranteed at least one laugh a day! I do need my own time still, but that doesn't mean I love them any less.

My life is so much happier now that I have my children.

this if from i just know in my mind. and people tell me this also. when u have children everything changes from good to bad. u have to teach them everything and some things just get worse when they dont listen. and i see how parents try to change it to make it better. not it doesnt always go that way. my family on my dads side they told me never have children. they are a pain in the ***. i believe them.

I'll be happier right now a big part of my unhappiness is because i don't have a child.