“I do not believe having a baby is punishment.”
Allen West, Politician
Advantages & Disadvantages of Having a Baby
Having babies can be one of the best experiences of your life.
Many people can’t imagine living their lives without having kids.
Yet, there are also many disadvantages to having kids.
In the following, all pros and cons of having babies are examined in detail.
Audio Lesson
Contents
Advantages of Having a Baby
- You may find a purpose in life
- Having a baby may show you a different perspective on the world
- You might feel that you missed out on something without having a baby
- Having kids can be exciting
- You will be impressed regarding how fast they learn
- Unique experience in your life
- May be the right thing to do from a social perspective
- You may become less selfish
- Your kids may be there for you at the end of your life
- Your child may become your best friend
- We need babies in order to sustain the human species
You may find a purpose in life
One key advantage of having a baby is that you can find a real purpose in life.
Many people do not really know what they should do with their time and just see no purpose in all of that.
However, through having a child, those people may find true meaning in their lives since they have to care about a person they really care about and want to do everything that their kid will have a good life.
Therefore, for people who search for true meaning and purpose in their lives, having a baby might be a great opportunity to find it.
Having a baby may show you a different perspective on the world
If you have a baby, you will also see the world from a different perspective.
While you might often have thought that those screaming babies are quite annoying, your mind may change quite a lot when you have your own kids and you will also be much better able to understand how stressful it can be for parents to raise their kids.
Thus, chances are that you will mature quite a lot and that you will get a much broader perspective on life in general.
You might feel that you missed out on something without having a baby
Some people may be quite insecure regarding whether they want to have children or not.
However, at the same time, many people also fear missing out on something if they decide against it.
This is especially hard for women since they have to decide quite soon in their lives whether they want to have children while men have much more time from a biological standpoint.
Having kids can be exciting
Many people really love to spend time with their kids.
It can be quite exciting to see your kids growing up.
It is often amazing how kids see the world and since they are not yet influenced by our social and cultural values at a young age yet, you might be surprised how much you could actually learn from your children since they have a much more unbiased view on the world.
You will be impressed regarding how fast they learn
Children are also quite fast learners.
It is amazing how fast some kids can process information and get better at things.
For instance, while it might have been hard to teach your kid how to learn cycling at the first try, your kid will likely master it after just a few times.
The same is true for learning different things in school.
Over time, you might even have difficulties to help your kid with his or her homework and your kids may become even smarter than you are at a rather young age.
Unique experience in your life
Many people describe having kids as the most exciting experience in their lives.
There is basically nothing that can give you this feeling of progress when you see your kids grow up.
You will also feel that you have achieved something important in your life and especially in difficult times, you may remember back on what you already accomplished and may be better able to overcome those difficult times in your life.
May be the right thing to do from a social perspective
Many people also have babies since they think that this is the right thing to do.
Their parents or friends may talk them into having babies and many people feel a real pressure to comply with those social norms.
Hence, having kids may also give people the chance to be valuable members of society, even though it is questionable whether or not this is a valid reason to have kids or not.
You may become less selfish
Since you have to share your resources with your family, chances are that you will also become less selfish over time.
While you might have put yourself first in your youth and your early adulthood, you might become more generous and less selfish since you want to do good for your family and may even care more about your family than you care about yourself.
Your kids may be there for you at the end of your life
Some people also really fear death quite a lot.
Those people often cannot accept that they have to die at one point.
Especially if you are one of those people who are really afraid of dying, having kids may help you in this regard to a certain extent since your kids may be there for you at the end of your life and may help you going this difficult but necessary last step.
Many people are also rather lonely when they get old since they have lost many of their relatives and friends over time.
Hence, if you don’t want to die lonely and without company, having children may be a potential way to have company for this difficult period of your life.
Your child may become your best friend
Some relationships between parents and their children are also quite good and people sometimes even claim that they have kind of a best-friend relationship with their children.
This is especially true for mother-daughter relationships.
Hence, the connection between you and your child will also be likely much stronger than every other connection you will have and this may give you great emotional support during your life.
We need babies in order to sustain the human species
Apart from your personal benefits of having a child, you may also consider having babies due to the fact that we as a human species need babies to sustain ourselves.
Without babies, the human race would become extinct after a certain period of time.
Hence, you may also want to support humanity by bearing children in order to ensure our existence on this planet.
Disadvantages of Having Kids
- Having babies can be expensive
- No guarantee that your kid likes you
- Some parents don’t know how to raise their kids
- Kids may get on the wrong track
- You may lose your kid under tragic circumstances
- Having kids can be exhausting
- You might need a tutor
- Need for a babysitter
- Less time to unplug from your daily life
- Hard to combine having children with a corporate career
- Lower level of flexibility
- You may lose your motivation to achieve your goals
- People may get bored over time
- Family problems
- Excessive stress
- Pregnancy can be exhausting
- Some people build their whole life around their family
- Sleep deprivation
- Less time for your own hobbies
- Overall quality of life may suffer
- Your kid will be dependent on you for a long period of time
- There is no going back
- Some people are simply not ready for having kids
- Overpopulation is a global problem
Having babies can be expensive
As we have seen before, there are many advantages to having babies.
Yet, there are also many issues related to it.
For instance, one problem of having babies is that raising a kid is extremely expensive.
You will have to take care of your child for many years and studies have shown that the average American child is over 200,000 USD.
It can be even much more in case you want to send your kid to a good college.
Hence, if you consider having babies right now, make sure that you have the financial capabilities to do so since having kids is quite expensive and many parents underestimate the true costs.
No guarantee that your kid likes you
It may sound hard, but there is also no guarantee that your kid will actually like you and value what you are doing for him or her.
In fact, some children really hate their parents and want to move out as soon as possible.
Moreover, there is also a risk that your child may suffer from some sort of personality disorder, which may prevent him or her from building a really strong connection with you.
Thus, there is no guarantee that all the hard work you do for your kid will pay off in the long run.
Some parents don’t know how to raise their kids
Another downside of having kids is that some people actually don’t know how to raise their kids in a proper manner at all.
Many young parents are often quite overwhelmed with all the things they have to do for their children and especially children from young parents are often neglected.
Hence, make sure to wait with having kids until you are sure to be ready for it.
Kids may get on the wrong track
There is also no guarantee that your kid will stay on the right track.
Even if you spend plenty of time to raise your kid in a way that gives him or her the best opportunities for a good life, your kid may still hang out with the wrong people once he or she gets older and you will never be able to prevent your kids from doing drugs or other issues that might negatively influence your kid’s life.
Consequently, understand that even though you put in all the hard work to keep your kid on track, it might not be enough and you might have to watch your kid getting on the wrong track without actually having much power to change things.
You may lose your kid under tragic circumstances
In the worst case, you might even lose your kid at a young age due to tragic circumstances.
For instance, your kids may get involved in a traffic accident and die.
There are many other accidents that can take away your kid from you and as a parent, this is probably the hardest thing to experience in life.
Many people will never be able to deal with such tragic events and therefore, be prepared that having kids may also imply to suffer serious levels of emotional pain if you are one of those unlucky people.
Having kids can be exhausting
Another disadvantage of having babies is that it can be quite exhausting to raise your kids.
Many parents often complain that their kids take up all their energy.
Therefore, if you want to have kids, make sure that you have enough power since you might easily get overwhelmed with all the tasks you have to do.
Always remember that you will not only have to manage your own life, but also the life of someone who can’t take care of himself or herself and who will need your assistance all day long.
You might need a tutor
Once your kid gets older, you might also need a tutor.
Especially if your kid is quite bad at school and you don’t have time to help your kid with homework since you have to work long hours in a demanding job, you will have to get a tutor who can help your kid improve his or her grades.
Yet, keep in mind that this also costs money and make sure that you will be able to afford it before deciding for having children.
Need for a babysitter
From time to time, it may also be nice to spend an evening without having your child around.
For those occasions, you might need a babysitter, which will also cost significant amounts of money if you need him or her on a regular basis.
Moreover, not all babysitters are trustworthy and competent and you should make sure to pick a good one in order to protect your child.
Less time to unplug from your daily life
Having a baby and working in a demanding job at the same time will be quite time-consuming and you will basically have no time at all to unplug from your daily life and to have some time for yourself.
This can lead to serious mental problems, since everyone needs time for himself or herself from time to time in order to stay healthy.
Consequently, make sure that you are a stable personality before having a child since you might get quite overwhelmed and also suffer from mental problems if you don’t have this strong character.
Hard to combine having children with a corporate career
Another problem of having children is that it is often quite hard to have a family while also working in a challenging corporate job.
While many firms claim to be family-friendly, they actually demand their employees to work quite long hours and there will be not much time left to spend with your kid if you come back home later in the evening.
Hence, in many cases, you might have to decide whether your child or your corporate career is more important to you and in some cases, this might lead to a serious neglect of children.
Lower level of flexibility
In general, once you have a baby, your life will change significantly.
You will lose a great level of flexibility since you always have to make sure that your kid is taken care of.
Moreover, also changes in your career will no longer be that easy since you will need plenty of money to take care of your child and will be forced to stay in your corporate job most often, even if you hate it and urgently want to quit.
Consequently, make sure to think about all of this before deciding for children.
You might come to the conclusion to wait a little bit longer with it, especially if you want to quit your job and start your own business.
You may lose your motivation to achieve your goals
Many people also had a variety of goals when they were young.
However, most people gave up on those dreams once they got a child since they simply had no time left to achieve those goals anymore.
Hence, even though this may sound hard, children can also prevent you from achieving your goals and dreams in life.
People may get bored over time
While some people really love their family life, others may get quite bored over time.
In fact, some people may even realize that this kind of family life is not for them at all.
Yet, in this case, it will be too late for excuses and you might have to take care of your kids, independent of whether you want to do so or not.
Family problems
Having your own family might also lead to serious family problems over time.
Due to all the things you have to organize when having a baby, you will feel quite overwhelmed on a regular basis and chances are that there will be serious disputes with your spouse sooner or later.
In the worst case, there might even be physical incidences.
Excessive stress
One of the most common complaints of parents is that they often feel stressed.
They have to bring their kid to school, work in a demanding job, pick their kid up from school, make dinner and may even be forced to work additional hours from home in the late evening.
It is no surprise that such a daily life can cause excessive stress and this stress can lead to serious mental and physical health problems in the long run.
Pregnancy can be exhausting
Not only raising your kids can be exhausting, also the pregnancy itself can be quite exhausting as well.
Especially for older women above thirty, chances for birth complications are significantly higher compared to younger women.
Hence, keep in mind that pregnancies are not harmless and even though chances for it are rather low, some mothers even die during giving birth.
Some people build their whole life around their family
Many people also build their whole life around their families.
This is quite dangerous since in case they lose their family due to divorce or other things that might happen in life, those people often lose everything they had left in life and many people simply can’t deal with this fact and become insane.
Thus, in my opinion, building your whole life around just one thing is never a good idea and you should have many different things going on in your life in case your idea of an intact family fails at one point in time.
Sleep deprivation
Raising a baby also often implies significant sleeping problems.
Quite often, you have to get up in the middle of the night since your baby woke up.
Therefore, especially when your kids are quite young, you may suffer from serious sleep deprivation, which may take plenty of your energy away from you which you could have otherwise used for your career or other important things in your life.
Less time for your own hobbies
If you have a baby, you will have to organize so many different things that you will simply not have too much time for your own hobbies.
This is especially true if you work in a demanding corporate job and have to take care of your family and your career at the same time.
Overall quality of life may suffer
Even though having kids can be a quite nice experience, it can also significantly lower your quality of life since you will often feel stressed and overwhelmed and since you will also no longer have time to do what you want with your life.
Hence, having children may not necessarily improve your quality of life, but may even significantly lower it for you.
Your kid will be dependent on you for a long period of time
In our nowadays society, it is quite common that children stay at their parents’ homes for a quite long time since they are often not able to afford to pay their own rent.
Hence, be prepared to take care of your kids until they are in their mid-twenties.
Moreover, in case you want to give your kid the opportunity to go to college, you will have to take care of them even longer and you may also help them to afford the high tuition fees.
There is no going back
Also keep in mind that once you have kids, there is no going back for you.
Sure, you can leave your family behind, yet you will still have to pay for alimony and child support in most countries all over the world.
Hence, always remember to make sure that you really want children.
Otherwise, this might turn into a quite expensive mistake for you.
Some people are simply not ready for having kids
While some people are quite well prepared, others are simply not ready yet to have their own kids due to financial or several other reasons.
Hence, if you consider having kids pretty soon, make sure that you fulfill all the requirements that are necessary in order to raise a kid in the best possible manner.
Overpopulation is a global problem
Even though we need kids in order to sustain the human population, at our current point in time, we simply have too many of them and our world population will be growing over 10 billion people until the end of the 21st century.
Therefore, it might not be a good idea to have children anymore since our planet may not be ready to provide food and water for all of them.
Top 10 Having Babies Pros & Cons – Summary List
| Having Babies Pros | Having Babies Cons |
|---|---|
| Having babies will give you a purpose in life | Babies are quite expensive |
| Can give you emotional stability | Your kids may not value your efforts |
| Company when you get old | Some kids are quite difficult to deal with |
| Your kids may take care of you | Your children may get on the wrong track |
| You will mature | Babysitters may be required from time to time |
| Having kids gives you a broader perspective | You may need a tutor |
| May be right from a social perspective | Having babies will make you less flexible |
| Humanity needs babies to survive | Family issues |
| Can be exciting | Having kids can be stressful |
| You will be surprised from time to time | Sleeping issues |
Should You Have Babies?
As we can see from the previous argumentation, there are several advantages and disadvantages to having babies.
In the end, you have to decide for yourself whether you want to have a baby or not.
However, make sure to evaluate all the pros and cons of having a baby since this will be one of your most important decisions in life and you don’t want to mess it up.
Sources
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/guide-parents.html
https://www.parents.com/baby/care/newborn/your-newborn-30-tips-for-the-first-30-days/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/being-a-parent/
https://www.tresillian.org.au/advice-tips/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_raising_a_child
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
Wanna make a contribution to save our environment? Share it!
