All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Living with very limited expectations is a much more immediate way of living. You really do just make the best of everything you have. I guess kids have that ability; they wait in joyful anticipation of something rather than that sense of entitlement.
Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.
Some children act as if they thought their parents had nothing to do, but to see them established in the world and then quit it.
The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
Having children truly ends adolescence. We are all either parents or children: responsibility-takers or those who demand from others.
Children do not give up their innate imagination, curiosity, dreaminess easily. You have to love them to get them to do that.
Rich or poor, every child comes into the world with some imperative need of its own, which shapes its individuality.
Above all, though, children are linked to adults by the simple fact that they are in process of turning into them. For this they may be forgiven much. Children are bound to be inferior to adults, or there is no incentive to grow up.
I am convinced that the reason why my kids have become very fulfilled and achieving human beings is because I wasn't raising them alone.
I don't think people who have children are acting selfishly or unselfishly. Having a child who'll be loved, to parents who love each other, is the important thing.