When you look at the shit the word has turned into, the immediate first response is to think it's a terrible place to bring children. BUT... it's actually a good place to bring children if you teach them how to change it. Don't fear what the world can do to your children. Stand in awe of what your children can do to the world. I've taken this stance with my two sons. Now that they are of voting age and they see the world from the same perspective that I do, I have three times capability of effecting change.

The people who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who do.

Because condoms fail. Aside from this, making a human is an incredibly enriching and rewarding learning experience. With hugs! Win, win.

I don't think we should. I oppose procreation, not only because of overpopulation and resource consumption, but also because I don't think it's fair to impose life on someone who cannot consent to it (i.e., everybody). That's not to say that there aren't some happy people who value their lives, but that there's some percentage of humanity that's miserable, chronically ill, suffering, etc., and they had no say in being brought into the world. While there's no harm that comes to the individual from not being brought into existence in the first place, there's clear potential for harm that comes from imposing existence upon another. Hence, I'm an anti-natalist and will not have offspring of my own.

I have four ... I value my role of mother above everything even though they have now flown the nest and are independent adults. Not an easy role but very rewarding. If I die tomorrow I feel I have added 4 beautiful but different people to the human community.

There is no longer any need to have children, in fact it should be discouraged. Living things reproduce, it is what they do, largely what makes them living things. Self replicating molecules ie DNA. Single cell organism undergo mitotic cell division so each offspring is a clone of the original. So this is what life does. More complex organisms merge their DNA as a way of improving the species.
This is the way each species attempts to avoid extinction. Occasionally a species is too successful, consumes the raw materials it needs and/or is poisoned by its' own waste products.
We are at the stage that the best way we can help our species survive is to reduce our population. That can be our contribution to the human gene pool.

No one told me I should have kids. Do Fur kids count?

To continue the species? To enjoy the pleasure of raising a family? To have the depth of feeling only a child of yours can engender?

Continuation of the species is the most obvious. However, I think we need to slow down the birth rate Not stop it altogether, but slow it down. The earth is over populated to the point where we are destroying our own environment faster than it can naturally recover.

we should drastically cut down on our children ie one per couple for a few generations and then one each if you want them and that is to bring back balance to this overpopulated world. genes need to move on and that is the desire of all life. we don't need to have children. I haven't.

Children are like elephants. Fascinating creatures. Good to go and see on occasion - but I wouldn't want one of my own.

Well I don't think you should have children unless that's actually what you want if you don't want children then don't have them either way is fine whatever makes you happy but personally I wanted to pass my jeans on I wanted to be a part of human evolution and I just wanted to have a family and Company and all the enjoyments that comes with having kids watching them grow playing sports with them watching them learn that making me proud just a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day I find it very satisfying

The rationale seems to be species survival. We are naturally compelled to procreate, like (nearly) every other living thing, in order to ensure species continuation & evolution. For some reason living things want to keep living as individual creatures as well as communal species, and it's obvious to us that it's so, but it seems the "why" portion still escapes science. No one really seems to know why we want to keep "this life thing" going at all.

We certainly need to tone down our population growth voluntarily, in my opinion - before natural limits force the issue on us. I think that's closer than many of us realize.

It's a natural process to have offsprings. It's the process through which evolution became possible. We were not the first human species and we will not be the last. Hence, children are an evolutionary necessity.

It's a natural progression of life to procreate and have off spring. As humans we can decide when, how many and not to at all if that's what you choose. It hasn't always been that way of course, before birth control and education, families were quite large. It was very common to have 6, 8 or even 12 children. The baby boomers are one of the largest generations to be born and we soon will have a huge elderly population to take care of. Once they start dying off our population will be the lowest in many many years. It's a fact that our birth rate has declined over the last 50 or so years. Teen pregnancy is at an all time low. People realized real quick that having lots of children cost money that most of us just don't have. My point is, it's in our DNA to want to pass on our genetic code. To become smarter and stronger than the last generation and unless some crazy virus starts spreading that causes infertility in the masses, then we'll continue to populate. I know there are a lot of people who are dumb as fuck and shouldn't have children. All we can hope for is that the strongest will survive and make a better world before our sun burns out and our planet dies.

A topic near and dear to me. I have a daughter from my 1st marriage. After we broke up I had another long term relationship with a woman who turned out to be alcoholic. She loved kids but realized alcoholism was in her family and did not want to put this suffering on another human.

In a small rural town in central WA there was a couple who chose not to have children and decided to start a support group for like minded-couple's. They named it "Childfree By Choice" and it took off all over the country. We joined since in my new relationship we chose not to have children. Gatherings were held and people spoke and surveys were made. It was like a more focused, real-time version of this site.

We live in a pro-growth culture and families, religions, industries, the media and governments go to great lengths to foster this 'natural instinct' (it is a powerful instinct and is almost never based on rational thought) for their own gains. Culture, natural instincts and propaganda all go together in creating the massive overpopulation problem we have today. BTW, I feel sorry for the young people being born today.

I am leaning toward not reproducing. I think it's a little selfish to have, rather than not have "I'm so great, I'm gonna make smaller clones of myself." In the Russian churches, unprotected sex is an invitation for god to decide if he wants to give you kids. So...there are families with 7-18+ kids (and each of those kids eventually has about the same amount)! Most on social welfare, of course. When these religious people are reproducing at such a rate, what's the point of even attempting to bring a child of reason into this world?

I should add being a parentis not for everyone

Accidents happen.

I fully suspect (and have done straw polls) that most children are "mistakes"; folks fornicating, making love... getting caught. As to choosing to reproduce; "men because they're tired, women because they're bored" is part of an answer. Many, too many people are pressured or believe they are pressured by family, society to pop children out; others want to see if they can do it... like a marathon eh? Diverse others want/seek little copies of themselves... to (ha!) control, mould. Nah; most all offspring are accidental.

I see so many intelligent non religious people deciding not to have children. It is distressing in a semi democratic environment to see logic and reason outnumbered hundreds (maybe even hundreds of thousands?) to 1. I agree with the need to limit total planet population but we need more rational voices as well.

It's not necessary but for some it's desired.

To pass on the blood line and to help them get established in life so they would be able to give me some grand children.

I was thinking this very thing this morning. I personally never wanted kids. I don't understand why others do. My sister helped raise about half the kids in Middlothian Texas. I have never been able to determine what should be the rational relationship between kids and parents. That is just about the only thing that I don't have an opinion on.

I waited 7 years after I got married to have my daughter Becky who is 34 today. I went into labor at 6 months, endured one week of something I'll call hell-I don't know what else to call it-and she was born 2 lbs, 5 ounces. Fitting in the palm of my hand she fought to live for 3 months and 3 days-another hell. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy a year later we were just happy to get her off the bradycardia and apnea monitors. Never thought I would have another child-too risky I was told. Well 12 years later when I turned 42 I discovered I was pregnant again. Normal pregnancy, normal baby. You never know.