Having children seems to be a bit of a bother.

There was an article in the Daily Mail to day that made both my eyebrows engage in St Vitus Dance.
Corinne Maier, mother of two children aged 13 and 10 has just published a book called, No Kid, 40 Reasons Not To Have Children, and naturally it has caused considerable outrage in France where it was first published.
Her arguments against having children most boil down to how inconvenient they are. Well yes, I imagine they are, so if you don't want to be inconvenienced perhaps you should not have them. Certainly writing a book about how distasteful is is to have children while you have two of your own is just down right cruel.

"I found the hardest thing to give up when I had my children was my personal freedom.
There is no time left to be you any more. If I hadn't had them, I would have spent my money travelling the world. I could enjoy my money, rather than being stuck at home waking them up every day in time for school.

Once you have children, there is no space for spontaneity any more. We tried to go to an art exhibition last weekend which we'd been looking forward to for ages, but we had to take the kids along and they hate art.
They whined so much that we gave up and left without seeing anything.'

Whinge moan, aren't they little bastards for not liking art. Poor kids. I feel very sorry for them. But this one nailed it for me.

"People often ask me what my children think of the book, but they don't give a damn.
They live in their own world and I live in mine. I would never give my daughter advice on whether she should have children. I don't care if I have grandchildren or not, but I know that if I do, I don't want to look after them too often."

Quite.



I also feel sorry for the kids of the rebuttal woman. Her name is Ursula Hirschkorm and she has two children aged 3 and 1. Her reasons to have children seem to center on the fact that she can now let her body go and ease into middle age guilt free. Although she claims becoming a parent makes you be less selfish most of her points seem to be centered on her and how she feels.


"My husband would come home from work and our entire dinner conversation would be about the milestones Jacob had reached, no matter how infinitesimal."
Right.
And
"Now I know that not all pregnancies are as rosy as mine, which were a round of cat naps and guilt-free chocolate scoffing, but the end result makes it all worthwhile even if you've spent nine months fighting morning sickness."
And
"When I was a new mum to Jacob, I remember saying to my husband that if I were to die then that it wouldn't matter so much because I had done the best thing I ever could in having my son."

Sweet Jebus on a moped. She's frightening. What is she going to do when her kids grow up and she's not the center of their world any longer? Will she call them up every night to make sure they say 'I love you Mommy'?

In an ideal world having children should boil down to this. Have them if you want, don't have them if you don't want them. But if you do have them you shouldn't lay all your anger and guilt and emotional well being on them. They are people too. Maybe adults should just consider that.