WHY CRAZY PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BREED

I have no children by choice...a choice that I thought about for a loooooong time, deliberated and tested myself about. I knew my weaknesses early on, and coming from a dysfunctional family (a violent, alcoholic father, enabling mother) I was very aware of potential problems I might have as a parent. Plus, I was a caregiver to my three younger sisters AND parents, and had way too much responsibility as a child. I didn't want all that parental obligation as an adult, and at 50 now, I can truthfully say I have NO regrets.

So why can't EVERY human (at least those in the U.S. and other civilized, educated societies) at least THINK about their fitness to be parents? Don't you think there would be less child abuse and less murderers like Andrea Yates? {For the uninformed, Andrea Yates cold-bloodedly murdered her five children by drowning them all in the bathtub. She also had her fifth child after being in a mental facility from a breakdown after the birth of the fourth child, and against the advice of a therapist that told her she shouldn't have any more children.}

Here's an excerpt from a news article about the Yates case:

On the CBS show "60 Minutes" Sunday night, Russell Yates said he stands by his wife, and contended that if she had received competent psychiatric care, their children would be alive today.

"She's a terrific mother, loved the children. They're always climbing up in her lap and she'd read books to them. And just all kinds of stuff. She loved them. I mean there's just no way that she, she, she would ever do anything like what happened," he said.


It's hard to determine which of these folks is the craziest, isn't it? Sure shouldn't have been breeding.