Great post. As the father of a daughter in her second year of college, I’d make two quick comments:
The cost estimates of raising a child—at least in our case—our vastly overblown.
This might be impossible to answer for sure, but seems a more important question than it seems to be given credit:
“Finally we may ask whether parenthood – and the resulting person created – will benefit the wider world?”
Not that this would be the norm, but because of our daughter, there are many more vegetarians and non-chicken-eating people in the world. At least so far, many people have supported my work and my wife’s work in part because of their fondness for our daughter.
And, more importantly, she is pursuing a utilitarian career.
PS—Good luck!
I think my reluctance to give a lot of argumentative weight to the benefits my child might add to the world come from how hard it is to be certain—at least from this end. I’m very much aware of being new to the parenting game with untested skills. Also, while both Toby and I have parents who feel strongly about justice and equality, and who almost certainly helped form us to who we are, we also have siblings who differ from us. I am trying not to have too specific a set of expectations for my child. However your daughter sounds like someone to be very proud of—congratulations, and well done!
Great post. As the father of a daughter in her second year of college, I’d make two quick comments:
The cost estimates of raising a child—at least in our case—our vastly overblown.
This might be impossible to answer for sure, but seems a more important question than it seems to be given credit: “Finally we may ask whether parenthood – and the resulting person created – will benefit the wider world?” Not that this would be the norm, but because of our daughter, there are many more vegetarians and non-chicken-eating people in the world. At least so far, many people have supported my work and my wife’s work in part because of their fondness for our daughter. And, more importantly, she is pursuing a utilitarian career. PS—Good luck!
Thank you.
I think my reluctance to give a lot of argumentative weight to the benefits my child might add to the world come from how hard it is to be certain—at least from this end. I’m very much aware of being new to the parenting game with untested skills. Also, while both Toby and I have parents who feel strongly about justice and equality, and who almost certainly helped form us to who we are, we also have siblings who differ from us. I am trying not to have too specific a set of expectations for my child. However your daughter sounds like someone to be very proud of—congratulations, and well done!