"For a child is to be born..."

Having children is a necessity of humankind, first of all, and generally of any population, of any race. It is basically an animal need, over which we try to superpose the image of intelligence and love. Beyond that, one can find strictly the essence of species perpetuation. And nothing more. Anything else pretended to be important in having children is only a matter of selfishness. A lot of people have children in order to be proud of them, or in order to have someone to take care of them when they are old, or simply because "this is how it has to be". So very few consider the true aspects involved by the birth of one child, the responsibilities that come with such an event and the fact that we bare those responsibilities until the day we die. A child never asks to be born. He/she finds him/herself alive, in circumstances they cannot control. And there is where the responsibility as a parent comes up front. Everything a child will do, starting with the way he/she grows, and ending with the way he/she dies, is a consequence of how well we accept those responsibilities. And this should frighten all of us. We shape a child. We shape the world. And by doing this, we shape ourselves. The real question in having a child is: "Are we truly prepared to shape ourselves? To become those who we have to be in order to complete those responsibilities?"(As a paranthesis, I myself feel scared to death by this thing that is going on in my life right now, and because of this I became too philosophic in everything I do...)