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josephrjusticeThis is my answer to the OKC question "Are you looking for a partner to have children with?" The possible answers are: (1) Yes; (2) No.
At the time I write this, I am 48 years old. That would make me 66 or 67 if I impregnated a woman today, by the time the resulting child was of the usual age to graduate high school. That seems ... old, to me.
Further, for various and sundry reasons which I'm going to decline to go into in detail in this public response, I don't think I have what it takes to raise a child properly. I don't have what I see as the necessary financial and other tangible resources one ought to have. I don't think I have the knowledge, the mental attitude, the perseverance perhaps, to bring a child up right. I think one should only have a child if one is able to do it at least acceptably well, and I don't think I do. I wouldn't want to be responsible for screwing up a kid.
Finally... Having a child means you have (or at least *should* have) a drastic change in your lifestyle and your orientation towards life. There's this new little being, and they're dependent on you for their existence, for their proper thriving and growing, and if you're going to be any sort of good person at all you need to do what you can to take care of them, to help them thrive and properly grow, to do your best to help them achieve being the best they are capable of, and to do this might mean giving up a lot of other things in favor of them. And, I just don't know that I'm willing, or even able, to do that, to make that change in my lifestyle, to make that change in my orientation towards life. And, if I'm not willing or not able to make that change, then I probably should not be having a kid.
So, my answer is No, I am not looking for a partner to have children with. And, I am going to say that only No is an acceptable answer to me by others to this question, and that it is somewhat important to me. (I suppose that things could change in my circumstances and my beliefs concerning myself and what I am willing and capable of doing, or that I could possibly be convinced by the right person to have children with them, so I won't say this is very important. However, I don't think it is likely such a change would happen in reality.)
At the time I write this, I am 48 years old. That would make me 66 or 67 if I impregnated a woman today, by the time the resulting child was of the usual age to graduate high school. That seems ... old, to me.
Further, for various and sundry reasons which I'm going to decline to go into in detail in this public response, I don't think I have what it takes to raise a child properly. I don't have what I see as the necessary financial and other tangible resources one ought to have. I don't think I have the knowledge, the mental attitude, the perseverance perhaps, to bring a child up right. I think one should only have a child if one is able to do it at least acceptably well, and I don't think I do. I wouldn't want to be responsible for screwing up a kid.
Finally... Having a child means you have (or at least *should* have) a drastic change in your lifestyle and your orientation towards life. There's this new little being, and they're dependent on you for their existence, for their proper thriving and growing, and if you're going to be any sort of good person at all you need to do what you can to take care of them, to help them thrive and properly grow, to do your best to help them achieve being the best they are capable of, and to do this might mean giving up a lot of other things in favor of them. And, I just don't know that I'm willing, or even able, to do that, to make that change in my lifestyle, to make that change in my orientation towards life. And, if I'm not willing or not able to make that change, then I probably should not be having a kid.
So, my answer is No, I am not looking for a partner to have children with. And, I am going to say that only No is an acceptable answer to me by others to this question, and that it is somewhat important to me. (I suppose that things could change in my circumstances and my beliefs concerning myself and what I am willing and capable of doing, or that I could possibly be convinced by the right person to have children with them, so I won't say this is very important. However, I don't think it is likely such a change would happen in reality.)
