There seems to be a lot of discussion, constantly, about how expensive children are. While yes, you do have to be financially responsible about having a child
, they do not need to be anywhere near as expensive as some ‘studies’ would have you believe. This is a topic I’ve already written about, so today we’re going to chat about the reasons why children are priceless.
I’m not trying to make it seem like having children is all sunshine and roses, because it’s not. It’s far, far from it actually, but having a child will change your life in ways you couldn’t imagine until it happens.
Reasons Why Children Are Priceless
They Inspire Deep Love
You may think you knew what love was before you had a child; trust me I did. I love my husband, my family and my friends but the love you have for your child is something you will have never experienced. The love you have for this tiny little human is indescribable. It changes and shapes every other relationship in your life.
The love you have for your child grows. Though I instinctively wanted to love and protect my child as soon as he was born, the love I have for him and my other two children, is so much different, and intense, than it was on the days they were born.
This idea is best epitomized by Elizabeth Stone’s statement, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
They Spread Happiness
I am truly happy when I am with my children and they are in good moods. You simply cannot be in a bad mood when your happy toddler smiles up at you or when your tweens tell you silly jokes. Their emotions are raw, and you can’t help but feel it with them.
They Teach You Patience
You may be an impatient person, but once you have a child, that has to change. If you show impatience and anger with your children, they will likely shut down or cry. Instead, you must gently encourage them so that they can succeed. (This can be extremely trying when you have to wait by the door for your toddler to slowly put on his shoes by himself because he’s refused your help or when he unbuckles his car seat for the fifth time in one car trip.)
Children will, by their very nature, teach you to be patient.
They Give You a Second Chance at Childhood Joy
Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash
By the time you’re in your twenties and thirties, you likely have lost much of your childhood joy. You may no longer take joy in driving around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights or the first snowfall of the season. Once you have a child, all of that changes.
As you watch your young children grow excited for Christmas, you do, too. When your child gleefully opens the presents under the Christmas tree, you will likely feel a spark of excitement again. When you bundle your child up to go out in the first snowfall, you will suddenly delight in building a snowman and making snow angels. Children give you a second chance at childhood joy.
They Are Brutally Honest
Kids are honest. Kids force you to be honest. Honest about yourself and about your life. When your child is born you are suddenly hyper aware of every detail in your life. From your financial life to the mess on your bedside table. Children inadvertently have a way of forcing us to be honest about our lives.
It was having a child that forced us to finally get serious about getting out of debt rather than living with it in limbo.
They Are Humbling
Becoming a parent is one of, if not the most, humbling experience in the world. No amount of research, parenting book reading or doctors appointments can ever prepare you for your child and the experiences you will go through as a parent. I think being humbled is an important trait for people and if you’ve yet to experience it, having a kid will do it for sure.
They Make You Less Self-Centered
Before you have children, you may not realize you’re self-centered, but you are. You likely have your own routine, your own rituals, that give you joy. Yet, when you have a child, all of that discipline and focus on yourself and what makes you feel good is upended. You get much less sleep in the baby stage, and your life and schedule suddenly revolve around the baby’s.
Photo by Adrià Crehuet Cano on Unsplash
When your kids get older, your life still centers around your children and their education and their activities. Sure, as kids get older and become more independent, you will be able to do more things for, and spend more time on, yourself. However, you don’t get your life back as truly your own until your kids move out. By then, you won’t want to go back to the self-centered years before you had kids.
They Give You Perspective
Having a child puts your life in a whole new perspective. Suddenly everything else in life is so much less important. You wonder what you did with your time before, and you wonder how you possibly lived your life without this person in it.
For the rest of your life, your children will shape and change your world, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Final Thoughts
Having a child is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing you can ever possibly do in your life. Yes, they are expensive, but don’t believe that kids are as expensive to raise as the experts would have you believe. Besides, what they give back in their love and the way they make you grow as a person are some of the reasons why children are priceless.
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