What it would take to get me to have children

Margaret Wente proposes that it would take a social revolution to get women to have more children.

I don't know why she's focusing only on women here, and I'm certainly not representative of the average woman, but, just for fun, here is what it would take to get me (a sworn non-breeder) to have children.

This wouldn't be so much a social change as a change in how children operate. What I would need to make breeding desirable is to be responsible only for the infant, not for the child, adolescent or adult. In my breeding-friendly world, I would become pregnant, go through a normal pregnancy, and give birth normally. Then I would take care of the child for as long as it needs to be nursed. Once it has grown up enough to eat solid food, it would, like many animals, leave and never come back, no matter what disaster may befall it.

Being pregnant sounds like something that could be interesting. Caring for an infant sounds like something that could be fun and interesting. However, having to instill moral values, social skills, toilet training, literacy, numeracy, safer sex skills, healthy lifestyle habits, money management skills and employability does not sound at all fun or interesting or desirable. Being ultimately responsible for another human being with the same human rights as I have and thoughts and feelings does not sound at all fun or interesting or desirable. I simply do not want to be permanently and forever bound to some random person who I don't even know yet, because one simply does not know how the baby is going to turn out. The problem with children is they are permanent, and I simply don't want to have to take care of them once they acquire more of a sense of independence and individuality than the average golden retriever. And, of course, this would not be at all fair to the child, so it's a good thing I'm not having kids!