This afternoon during the half hour I managed to spare for brainless, talk-cock circular/cover letter stapling at the common table, topic discussed was plight of modern-day parents when kids fall sick... one colleague's son has been quite sick all week, making her very stressed and upset; she and husband had also been taking turns to go on leave to look after child. Then two guo4 lai2 ren2s said.. oh, we've been through all this and it's part and parcel of bringing up kids... and also narrated their tiring/worrying experiences with their own kids... I had nothing to contribute, so just sat there listening... but couldn't help but feel that it's so scary, draining and difficult to bring up kids... And looking back at when I was a kid, I suppose I must have given my own parents a fair deal of stress and heartache too.

If it's so difficult and draining to bring up kids, it makes me wonder... so why do so many ppl want to have kids then? Is it cos they just happily gave birth to kids unaware of the demands of child rearing? But for ppl who actually chose to have more than one kid, that can't be a reason... Which makes me wonder, why get into something when you know this something's going to stress you, drain you, tire you... This question I also posed to one colleague wrt to relationships... why get into a relationship when sometimes you know that you're in for a heartbreak? To which she answered, when you're single you tend to feel more neutral most of time, but when you're attached/ married you can also be very unhappy or very happy... and at the end of the day that someone can hurt you but some ppl are definitely worth it... So similarly for the many wei2 da4 parents out there, I suppose their kids are worth the heartache/worry etc etc... Life wouldn't be very exciting if it were always a bed of roses? :)