For you, what makes it worth having children?

I was thinking about the cost of children in another question. I don’t really think of children as an investment or a retirement plan. I don’t really expect anything of a concrete nature back from them.

I think I see them more as a kind of entertainment—an entertainment that seems to matter more than anything else. It feels important. After all, they are lives, and life feels like such a precious gift.

I enjoy teaching them and seeing their personalities become more and more defined. I like the crazy things they come up with, and the way them make me think. I like the problems they present.

I also think that I identify strongly with them, and, to some extent, see them as extensions of myself. They are certainly something that a part of me will remain in, even after I’m dead. A kind of legacy—a reflection of how I’ve treated them and parented them. I have hopes that, whatever they decide to do, they will more more successful at it than I have been at the things that interest me. I want them to be equipped with the skills and resources they need to lead the most self-actualized lives they can. It’s kind of a mystical thing, in ways that I feel, but can’t begin to explain.

You?