Children and Voluntary Simplicity
This I will admit contains elements which are wholly personal and sometimes conjectural. Choosing to live the simple life is difficult enough for a single person but perhaps is even more so for families. Firstly, not everyone will necessarily agree on the simple living project or to what degree it should go. Children, particularly teenagers, are dreadfully conservative and subject to peer pressure and the thought of not being able to wear the latest fashions or get the latest gadget no doubt causes massive and vocal "differences of opinion".
I am not a parent. It is a conscious choice. I think, in a world already overpopulated, that it is more ethical not to produce more little consumers but to try to contribute to society in other ways. I know this stand is frowned upon by some who see the reproduction as a right, if not a duty. I, however, really think that it is encumbent on us all to think long and hard before having kids and to seriously consider other options, such as fostering or adoption of children already born, who need support than adding to the growing number of human beings on this Earth.
Alas, it is not that simple. Where I live from what I hear anecdotally from my friends, most pregnancies are unplanned. It happens. But parents are often made to consume way more because of guilt trips laid on them by children through advertising. Saying no to your kids and trying to teach them the importance of an ethical above the consumerist lifestyle "enjoyed" by all their friends is a nearly impossible task. Yet I am sure, when it works, the rewards must be wonderful. To cut through all the expectations of materialist living and spend real time with one's spouse and kids is something that money really cannot buy.
I must admit have little or nothing to say on the subject of families and in this blog will only tough on it occasionally. The Bare Naked Family is a site of a couple with 3 small kids who packed in a conventional middle-class lifestyle to travel around the U.S. together in an camper van to spend more time with what matters - and they seem, from their site, to be having a pretty good time. I imagine there are lots more people who love to do what they have done.
I am not a parent. It is a conscious choice. I think, in a world already overpopulated, that it is more ethical not to produce more little consumers but to try to contribute to society in other ways. I know this stand is frowned upon by some who see the reproduction as a right, if not a duty. I, however, really think that it is encumbent on us all to think long and hard before having kids and to seriously consider other options, such as fostering or adoption of children already born, who need support than adding to the growing number of human beings on this Earth.
Alas, it is not that simple. Where I live from what I hear anecdotally from my friends, most pregnancies are unplanned. It happens. But parents are often made to consume way more because of guilt trips laid on them by children through advertising. Saying no to your kids and trying to teach them the importance of an ethical above the consumerist lifestyle "enjoyed" by all their friends is a nearly impossible task. Yet I am sure, when it works, the rewards must be wonderful. To cut through all the expectations of materialist living and spend real time with one's spouse and kids is something that money really cannot buy.
I must admit have little or nothing to say on the subject of families and in this blog will only tough on it occasionally. The Bare Naked Family is a site of a couple with 3 small kids who packed in a conventional middle-class lifestyle to travel around the U.S. together in an camper van to spend more time with what matters - and they seem, from their site, to be having a pretty good time. I imagine there are lots more people who love to do what they have done.
posted by voluntarysimpleton at 11:59 AM
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