Listening to a book..."Sapiens". Author talked about how dependent kids are. How compared to other animals, our babies need alot of support in the early stages of life.
Like alot of you I'm sure, I've got a fair amount of kids in my life...none of "mine" but some kind of are. I guess my point is we may not have kids, but really, they are all our kids, as supported by evolutionary biology, it takes a village.
Edit: Going a bit deeper...the author explains that for millions of years, while we were tribal, nomadic gatherer/hunters. We didn't know who's kids were who's, obviously the mother was primary caretaker, but, circling back, we evolved to raise kids as a community, not so much of the "traditional" mom/dad/child dynamic popular today.
I don't plan on "having kids" but still, I think it's all our responsibility (hopefully a partially enjoyable one) to help. Hard to argue anything more beneficial for our societys future than having well developed youth.
Sounds like we are in pretty different boats. I have siblings, nieces/nephews, neighborhood kids and friends kids in my life. I'm not sure how I'd choose to not have them in my life.
Anyway, you must have had plenty of positive influences in your life other than your parents? Surely your grateful for them?