Pros and cons of having children

Having children has a devastating effect on lives of parents: o People from free individuals turn into servants o They have to abandon their careers to take care of the offspring, especially women who end up being the major childcare provider o Parents have much less time for socializing resulting in losing friends o Couples’ relationships are also bound to deteriorate as mother and father become more interested in a baby than in themselves. o these reasons contribute to general dissatisfaction of parents who feel they have lost their own lives.

Having children is one of the most fulfilling and rewarding experiences in life. o Raising children is not easy, but it brings about a feeling of fulfillment. o Kids enable parents to rediscover the world around them. o parents feel empowered as they can shape another human being into an adult o Relationships with kids seem to be the deepest, most enduring ones. o having children improves married peoples' life satisfaction, making them happier

Devastating – руйнівний, спустошливий

To abandon – покидати

Offspring - нащадок (нащадки)

To end up being – зрештою стають

Childcare provider – джерело турботи

To be bound to – неодмінно

To deteriorate – псуватися

Having children is emotionally draining for parents: o Parents pour all their souls into children, who, in turn, often leave them disenchanted and exhausted. o Parents also have to share their child’s problems which double their grief o those who have offspring also become more vulnerable. o Having raised children, parents become emotional wrecks.

Having children enriches parents emotionally: o The experience of parenting triggers deep and genuine emotions, which parents would not experience otherwise. o having children actually enlarges both the spectrum and the intensity of emotional experiences for parents. o The fact that parents worry about their children that much is only a further evidence of how much children’s contribution means to parents.

Draining – виснажливий

Grief – горе, сум.

Vulnerable - уразливий

Wreck – розвалюха

Enduring – міцний, тривалий.

Fulfilling – що приносить задоволеність

Rewarding – який винагороджує

To bring about – викликати, спричиняти

To enable – давати можливість

Еmpowered - натхненний

To shape – надати форму

To enrich - збагачувати

To trigger – викликати, давати старт.

Genuine – щирий, непідробний

Spectrum – розмах, діапазон

Having children is extraordinarily expensive o For majority of people children are the biggest expenditure they ever undertake.

Any money spent on children is well used: o The more we spend on children’s health care, the more productive our society will be; the more we spend on their education, the wiser our society will be; the more we spend on their cultural awareness, the more conscious of art our society will be.

Extraordinarily - неймовірно Awareness - обізнаність

Expenditure - витрата Conscious of – чутливий до

Undertake – брати на себе, здійснювати.

It is morally wrong to bring children to this cruel and miserable world: o Four out of every five children will be born to families whose members survive on less than $10 a day.

There is no better present for somebody than to give him a life: o Our lives are not just about money. There are so many valuable emotions, situations, experiences that have nothing to do with wealth level o Children are able to rise out of the poverty o positive experiences in lives usually outweigh those negative, that’s why a vast majority of us would never change our lives for not being born

Miserable – жалюгідний Wealth level – рівень багатства

To survive – виживати To rise out of – вибратися з

To outweigh - переважувати

Vast - широкий

Not having children is environmentally friendly: o The more people consume in the world, the greater the environmental damage. o Increasing world’s population also places incredible stress on Earth’s resources

Not having children is not a good way to combat environmental problems: o The real answer to environmental issues is developing clean technology and promoting ecological awareness. o If we start to produce energy from renewable resources, switch to electrical transportation, recycle waste etc. we won’t need to reduce population in order to sustain the environment.

To consume – споживати renewable – поновлюваний

Incredible stress – неймовірний тиск to recycle waste – переробляти сміття

Sustain - підтримувати