It is in the nature of all animals to reproduce, but as sophisticated as we claim to be, we should be able to deny that nature, especially when one cannot financially support a child.
If you live in the townships or even in the suburbs & happen to need a taxi you are quite likely to find yourself sharing the taxi with a crying baby. This possibility is almost multiplied in the township, because there are some women who have children simply to acquire the child grant. The laziest & simplest minded of people will usually have the most children.
This problem is not only prevalent in South Africa, if you listen to rap music you're quite likely to hear a rapper talk about how hard it was growing up due to a lack of finance. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but I feel like more often than not, black mothers have children in hopes that their child will be a success & free them from poverty. Most times the children do not even realise that their parents took it upon themselves to bring them into a life of hardship so they could help their parents out of it after doing their best to educate their child.
People call children a "gift from God", but in actuality they simply engaged in coitus & the man's sperm fertilised the woman's egg. I am completely against the idea of procreation, I lack the selfishness & ego to continue my family name or have someone who will be an extension of myself, as my father loves to point out about me.
I have had this philosophy on procreation since 2007 at the age of 13 when my mother was expecting her fourth child. I could see that my parents were already struggling with the 3 of us & I remember the devastation I felt when I noticed my mother's stomach beginning to grow. The quality of life at home was already low thanks to the 2007-2009 recession & there they were, rejoicing that their fourth child was on it's way. My baby sister was born in January of 2008 & although I love her, I cannot stop to think about how much easier things would be if my parents had less children. I know what you're thinking, I'm being selfish too, but I was the first victim to bad family planning. Nothing devastated me more than when I found out that my mother had a miscarriage in 1998, because one of my siblings were born in 1999, my little sister is practically the replacement baby. I remember talking to my mother while we were washing the dishes she explained that it was always her dream to have 4 children & today, she has them, but things are hard.
I know that people will continue to have children based on their selfish needs & desires, but I ask of you to do this when you can afford to take care of a child & if you never can, please do not be so selfish as to bring a child into the world to suffer with you.
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