Should We Have Kids?

Dr. Lindsey Doe, host of the Sexplanations channel, discusses the question of whether to have children. She outlines common arguments for and against having kids, such as environmental concerns, care for aging generations, economic, emotional and cultural factors, and presents fostering and adoption as a third option. She shares that she has parented 12 children as a foster and/or adoptive parent over about ten years, starting at age 27. She says she keeps details limited to protect the privacy of the children and does not claim to know what is right for any one person.

• Common arguments for and against having children
• Fostering and adoption as an alternative option
• Host's personal experience as a foster and adoptive parent
• Privacy limits on the details shared

Go to http://simplehealth.com/sexplanations or use code SEXPLANATIONS to have the $20 prescription fee waived. Here is a link to calculate your personal cost of rasing a child: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/tools/CRC_Calculator/default.aspx When I think about whether or not to have kids the two biggest arguments that come to mind are "no, don't add 59 more tons of CO2 to the planet each year" and "yes, we need more kids in the next generation to care for older generations as they age." It's confusing. And it's not simple. In addition to these reasons there are hundreds more -- emotional, cultural, economic and so on. Research shows that the more educated a person is the less likely they are to have children and this is often brought up to encourage people who intellectually prevent pregnancy to have children for the sake of society. There's social pressure, tradition, wanting independence, and adventure. What I hope to do in this episode is to share some of the most common arguments for and against having kids while offering a third option to the debate -- fostering and adoption. I don't know what is right for any one person (though I do judge) and there's a lot of factors to consider (some I don't know of or understand). As I share in this video, I have parented 12 kids as a foster and or adoptive parent. I started when I was 27 and it's now been a 10 year experience. Recently someone asked me to talk about this in a video so this is an effort to do that. It's certainly not everything I have to say on the topic including everything I've learned about sexuality from parenting. I chose not to go into a lot of detail because I"m still trying to sort out how to describe my experiences while preserving the anonymity and or confidentiality of my kids. What I can tell you is that I'm thinking a lot about how and if there's still interest, I will do my best to share more in the future. Stay curious. Dr. Doe's contact info: TWITTER : https://twitter.com/elleteedee TUMBLR : http://tumblingdoe.tumblr.com FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/sexplanations INSTAGRAM : http://instagram.com/sexplanations DFTBA : https://store.dftba.com/collections/sexplanations WEBSITE : http://sexplanations.com Support Sexplanations by becoming a sexpla(i)naut: https://www.patreon.com/sexplanations https://www.patreon.com/sexplanationspodcast