Why do people have children?

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I know it’s not really true but I often secretly wish it upon those gorgeous couples now and then.

Yes, I have these evil thoughts! I own it!
 
Thank you for your answer!

I wish that I will not be asked that question, because it may be difficult for me to answer it.
 
The LORD, ‘I AM’, told Abraham and Sarah to have a son (to know each other even though they were too old for knowing each other to accomplish anything https://softvocation.org/ and The Name | SoftVocation ).
He told them to have this son because he had a plan to fulfill with that son, and that Abraham and Sarah, and that son, were needed for that plan. So, they knew each other, to participate in this intention.
As Catholics, we are integral to our LORD’s activity in the world to Save (we are indeed known as the “Body of Christ”, and do his will rather than that of the world).
We do all the things we do, including marrying and having children, as co-operators with our LORD in the world, so that the promise to Abraham, Sarah, Adam, and Eve, will be perfected in us.

Your child is in this mission with you; he/she is not a commodity that may or may not reach heaven, but is a person you are raising (or will raise) to participate with our LORD in his Operation of Love.

John Martin
 
My biggest fear was my kids being bored with me. I knew how things were with DH and myself… we were good. But what happens if we threw a third or fourth person into the mix? Would we just sort of stare at each other and have nothing to talk about, because they wouldn’t find us an interesting family to be part of?

Then, of course, they actually came along… there hasn’t been a boring, staring, thumb-twiddling day since. 😛
 
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someone429 said:
So, if I get married, and then have children, and then my children ask me, “Since people all have a real danger of ending up in the hell, and since you are also troubled by it, then, why did you have me, which made me also have to face this danger?”, then what should I answer? Should I just answer, “Well, it is God’s will for people to have children and multiply?”
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I think that @Irishmom2 is right and that it is very unlikely that you will have to answer that question. If my daughter asked me that, I would tell her that God knew her and loved her before she was even born. That He loves her so much that He wants her to be with Him forever in Heaven. I would tell her that her Daddy and I had her to help her get to Heaven. Depending on your child’s age (when you have children), you may or may not want to focus on the hell part.

Thinking about hell does frighten me and when I think about it, I try to remind myself that God doesn’t really want any of us to go there. I just pray that I make good use of the graces God gives me and try to trust in His mercy.
 
More or less. People are designed to socialize and need the intimate bonds of family. Love is what life is all about.
 
Because they marry, marriage means sex and sex is there for procreation
 
The sex drive is one of the strongest drives in most humsans. Strong enough to over ride doubts, fears, reason etc. Sex makes babies. Lots of people simply want kids and the experience of raising them, but even for those who don’t, sex often makes them parents in spite of themselves.
 
The planet would be very sparsely populated indeed if everyone was well-behaved and self-controlled! 😛
 
someone429 said:
Why do people (and particularly, Catholics) have children?
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I have no idea. You’d have to ask somebody who has them. A friend of mine who has several children tells me that he thinks that passing on his DNA to the next generation is his highest purpose in life. He says that a life without having one’s own biological children would be pointless. That doesn’t sound like a very convincing argument for having children, but it’s the one he gave.
someone429 said:
Did you ask your parents why they had you? If so, how did they answer?
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Yes, I did ask. Apparently my father wanted them and my mother went along with the idea. My father claims that people simply have an ‘urge’ to have their own children and that it was all he wanted at that stage in his life. Again, it doesn’t sound very convincing to me.
someone429 said:
If your children ask you why you had them, how will you answer?
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As I am never going to have children, that’s not a question I can answer. I wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of at least thinking about adopting as a single person, but the motivations for doing that are of course entirely different. Adopting a child who would otherwise grow up in an institution or in a series of temporary families would be a decision based on altruistic generosity, whereas I think the question being asked here is what is the motivation for reproducing biologically.
Irishmom2 said:
You might be overthinking things. I am pretty sure your children will never pose that question to you.
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Really? You don’t think that a lot of people wonder why their parents ever thought that it was a good idea to bring them into the world?
 
@Londoner, you have taken my quote and applied it to something else.

I post that you quoted was in response to this question from the OP.

"So, if I get married, and then have children, and then my children ask me, “Since people all have a real danger of ending up in the hell, and since you are also troubled by it, then, why did you have me, which made me also have to face this danger?”, then what should I answer? Should I just answer, “Well, it is God’s will for people to have children and multiply?” "
 
Oh, I see. Apologies then. Yes, I think you are quite right and I’d be very surprised if anybody has ever asked their parents why they decided to have children given the risk of ending up in hell. When people wonder why their parents thought it was a good idea to have children I’d expect them to be thinking about more tangible concerns such as the parents being too poor to easily support the family, family relationships being dysfunctional, or there being a high risk of the child inheriting some kind of physical or mental abnormality. These are all things which, as I understand it, the Church considers to be legitimate concerns for people thinking about having children. If people didn’t have children because they were afraid of hell then presumably the only people who had children would be the ones who don’t believe in hell.
 
I didn’t have to ask why my parents had me, I was told, repeatedly from as far back as I can remember. I was an accident. My father worked very hard to support an already large family and my mom didn’t feel it was right to deny him his marital pleasures and I was the result.

They did want children, just not nearly as many as they ended up with.
 
My husband and I decided we wanted children long before we knew we wanted to be married. We actually realized we wanted to marry each other because we both saw the desire to raise children in the same way. Our first six were adopted and we’ve since had two more. Our oldest son asked us why we adopted him and we let him know that we wanted to make the world a better place and we thought that by raising a good family full of future saints was the best way to accomplish that. It’s the same answer we would give to our bio kids if they ask as well.

We have found we’ve enjoyed the joys and anguishes of parenthood even more than we imagined. Perhaps our kids aren’t perfected saints but they at least have been shown the path to get there and been given the resources to help them on their way. We’ve learned more from raising them than we expected to as well. We feel like they have saved us in many ways. We are better people because of them.
 
I am sorry that was your experience. It was not right for you to be told those things. No child should be made to feel unwanted. I am glad your parents ended up with as many as they did or else you may not be here! I think you have surely touched lives and brightened many days. I am glad to have met you
 
So you were a precious, unexpected gift, @Calliope 💝
A gift that God saved for the last great gift to your family.
 
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