Well, to have children or not, and if yes, then how many, is something very personal and varies from person to person (and may I dare to say from religion to religion!!!), but I disagree with this concept that having more children will impact our environment & resources in a negative way.
I clearly remember reading a report somewhere (I don't remember the source, though….) where it clearly mentions that the world has enough resources to feed the global population 3 times over. Our world doesn't lack resources; what it lacks is proper management in exploiting the resources and effective distribution channels.
That was the major cause for so many deaths during the Bengal famine in 1940's. It’s a misconception that India didn’t have enough food that time and whatever was available was diverted to the British troops (WW-II) fighting the Japs in SE Asia. In reality, the food never reached the starving people due to absence of effective distribution channels, while the godowns/warehouses overflowed with excess food. (Economist: Amartya Sen)
However, this doesn’t mean that I support indiscriminate population growth……….it should be balanced.

My thoughts.

Regds

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Orginally posted by morning_rain

Thanks for the posts and thoughts...

financially speaking..children can be a poor investment
They are supposed to cost over $300,000 (till age 18).. a person who chooses a dog will only pay $5000 over its lifetime !

I also agree with the environmental perspective...the earth is very over populated and resources are running out.

Wouldnt it be better to adopt a child already in the world?

Again ..let me re-iterate..im undecided..im not trying to say *having* kids is bad..im trying to generate a discussion..to help me in my own decision making processes!!

Thanks..

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sumjo

Interesting to see that Indians are also considering the idea of not being parents given that a year after marriage in-laws, relatives etc. start dropping not so subtle hints about new additions to the family.

M_R, I am in the same boat as you....older and no kids yet. As you said, this is a huge decision because this is not something you can walk away from or just remove yourself...it is very unfair to the child.

Other factor to consider is the spouse...how badly does he/she want to have a child.

we have 2 kids and yes it is tuff to bring them up and we came here so they would have a good life. so i would not send them back. there are ppl who have 5 kids and they both work. its just how you work your time. sending them back is a short cut. but then there are times i have thought of doing the same. but come on , canadians dont have extended family to send their kids to and they bring up fantastic kids. so why do we think that we need to

well... it really depends on your priorities right now. You could still wait till 5 yrs( since now you are 30). Today there are so many 40- 45 year old ladies having healthy babies. But then the important thing to keep in mind is for women after a certain age you start feeling an emptiness in life and may want to change your decision.... but it may be too late!






quote]Orginally posted by morning_rain

hi CD\\\\'s

What are people\\\\'s thoughts about a childfree lifestyle?

I ask this question based on another thread about \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'second child\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'..just got me thinking. I know some couples that have sent their children back to India to be raised by extended family so they could work 24/7 out here. My thoughts are ..in this situation..why have children at all? There are many child free couples in North america.

Im on the fence myself..at age 30.

please dont flame me...im only trying to start a discussion
thanks

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/preconception/fertilityproblems/6155.html

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Give free food http://www.thehungersite.com ||

My husband and I have been married for 3 and a half years. Some would say we should have had a couple of kids already, but luckily for me, my family (esp. inlaws) have not been too pushy in that department. Until now.

However, having recently gone to a couple of friends' baby showers, my hubby and I could not help having yet another discussion on having a child. Truth is, we are too selfish. Maybe we will have kids one day, but for now, we have decided that we are too selfish to have a child. We enjoy our lifestyle that we have right now, we enjoy a certain standard of quality in our lifestyle and are not ready or willing to give it up just yet. I am of course speaking financially - I am not saying having kids will not fulfill us in other, spiritual ways.

Is it selfish to want to maintain a certain standard of living by choosing not to have kids?

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Are you working hard, or hardly working?

Brown girl in the ring... tra lalalala, there's a brown girl in the ring....

Arey just the taking off the ABBA-Boney M dhaagaa, yaar!

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hinglish zindabad