If I had kids... (or a real job!)

I just read an article about how the Danish economy will risk going into recession if we can't meet the increasing demand for employment. One solution is to make sure that people keep working through their 60'es instead of retiring. A lot of surveys show that a lot of people would rather retire earlier and live of the increased value in their homes. 

Then maybe if everybody just worked 2-3 hours extra a week, including the families with kids...

It's a personal choice to have kids or not, to have a job or choose not to have one. But does anyone ever question if you can achieve excellence in both at the same time?

In Denmark, a lot of people seems to have chosen a life style, with so many expenses that they don't really have a choice if or not both parents want to work full time. I think a lot of people confuse the meaning of value. For the most part it's related to material stuff and not about how you choose to live your life. Many of the seemingly rich people are living a poor life, in my opinion. I just can't believe that anyone is having kids, just to send them off to daycare from 7 am to 4 pm everyday and then justifying that with quality time from 5-7 pm and on weekends. If having kids means raising them to become good consumers in a material focused world, I'm a little worried. It actually makes me want to have kids to prove that it could be done differently!!! 

So if I had kids (with a woman who shared the same visions) I would seriously consider the following

10 things I would (try) do if I had kids

Ask myself every morning, why I chose to have kids? To deliver them at day care at 7 am and pick them up again at 4 pm?

Make sure they were “exposed” to nature every day. Even though it meant moving out of the city.

Show and tell them about the animals and plants. Hereby showing them the interaction between life and death and why there’s no such thing as good or bad in nature, only instincts and necessity. Valuation comes from our interpretation, based on personal and cultural beliefs.

Tell them that we humans are just another kind of animals and that we got to share the Earth with all the rest of them.

Tell them that the Bible,  Superman, the Koran, Emil from Lønneberg, Harry Potter, the Greek and the Nordic Mythology are all just a bunch of good stories and that we might be able to learn a little bit from each one of them and miss out a lot if we just stick to one of them.

Introduce them to water as soon as possible and learn them how to swim.

Introduce them to music and learn them how to play at least one instrument.

Move to another country, for at least a year, to experience a different culture and learn a second language.

Being a good example through action rather than words.

Make sure they understand the meaning and value of a free will, the obligation of choice and the concept of consequence.

Make sure that they would feel loved every day by their parents and make sure they know their parents loves each other too.

Well I guess it all boils down to the choices we make for ourselves. Hopefully they're real personal choices and not influenced by society, traditions, others expectations and so on, because at the time you'll find out, it might just be too late...