But it’s ok for people to have multiple kids with multiple women and never see their kids? Or people having 5/6 kids with no jobs or a plethora of other bad reasons? To want my blood and a part of me to be on earth when I’m gone is good enough for me and luckily I don’t have to have one with you or get your blessing. But luckily for you I probably won’t have any kids anyway.
Wow. That went south really fast.
My apologies. I meant no disrespect. I assumed that you came on here seeking advice. You said that you wanted a child in order to give your life purpose and that you were depressed. I simply intended to provide a perspective that laying on a child the burden of giving your life fulfillment isn’t realistic to the child or to you. I simply wanted to suggest that if you are depressed that addressing that challenge maybe would be a good priority and then having a child would be a good secondary goal/desire. Again, there’s nothing wrong with therapy and I meant no disrespect in suggesting it.
I know that I joke around a lot on these boards, but being real here for a second, my advice comes from a sincere spot and I am very sympathetic to what you are going through.
My wife and I tried for 10 years to have a child. We had our first child die in utero and she had to have a d&c procedure to have it removed. We tried forever after that. We finally adopted a child and it was the most amazing experience in our lives. But with adoptions come attachment and other challenges, which took a lot of hard work as parents.
My wife became pregnant a year and a half after the adoption. It was an insanely difficult pregnancy with prolonged bed rest and preterm labor. When my wife finally had our youngest son (6 weeks early) I caught mono in the hospital. I was terribly sick for weeks with a fever that would on several occasions spike to 104 degrees. After that I ran into challenges at work and then my father died. I sank into a deep depression for a couple of years. I was a terrible father during my kids’ toddler years. And I was a bad husband. I moped around all the time and wasn’t emotionally present for anyone. The mono impacted my adrenal system and my brain chemistry was just out of wack. I couldn’t get beyond myself.
Finally, I had to get some help in order to get clarity. With a lot of help, I was able to work out a lot of issues. I think that I’m a better husband and father now but I really have to work at it even now. Both being a husband and a father is incredibly hard. I know you say that you are “selfless,” but truth is, all people are naturally selfish. We act in our own best interests. Call it evolution, call it sin, call it whatever…it’s just how we are hard-wired. But you have to go against the grain of that when you are a parent. And from my experience, I know that I really struggled to do that when I was depressed. And I wanted to compassionately express that to you.
For what it’s worth, I know the feeling of the pain of not having a child when you want one. For me, I really wanted the relationship of having a son. (Admittedly, I don’t understand the desire of “leaving your blood, or seed behind.”). But I remember the freedom that my wife and I experienced when one day we came to the realization that a child would not “complete” us. And it wasn’t until we reached that level of health that we were really ready to move on with being parents.