Great post, Hsiang-Lin. :-)
You've covered the Yin and the Yang
....
Though I've no child on my own and definitely don't plan to have one too but I always believe there are always 2 sides of the coin. 2 polarities of earth and 2 ways you can go about in perceiving certain situations.
I believe there won't be a right/wrong answer to answer the question whether kids are necessary or not. Because when you go to either side, they'll always be right depends on who answered it.
But I definitely agree with you that the reason why people have kids can be pretty amusing. Coming from a small town myself, for those of my friends who didn't further their studies, their days are counted down to a few events in life, such as:
- Dating
- Marrying someone
- Having kids
- Sending kids to good school
- Kids are dating
- Kids are marrying someone
- etc etc etc .... vicious cycle
and when one doesn't have kids, you'll be rest assured gossips will start flying around like flies.
Then now I'm back to Singapore (big city, modernized ,etc), and I met one of my friend who's quite successful financially. She's married for 2 years, 28 yrs old now. She said she plans to have kids next year and also asked why do people need to have kids. Then she answered her own question by saying,"but it'll be so funny if you don't have kids". I asked,"says who?". She said,"well, it's just funny if you are married and don't have kids."
I guess whether you have or don't have kids. Just make sure it's your own decision and conscience say so. Don't blame it to the surroundings or peer pressure because kids deserve a better reason to live in this earth than just to save one's face.