Sorry... No Refunds.

Ok, well, I've decided that as a little precursor to what is hopefully a good weekend for all of you, I'd leave you with a little pearl about something that I feel pretty strongly about.

To preface the possible debate that may come from this post, I'll fill you in a little on my and my wife's background with our daughter. We were engaged when we decided to have children, my wife was 5 months pregnant at our wedding. Obviously there were some naysayers in the bunch, but that's not the point of this topic. The point of this topic is the CHOICE. My wife and I DECIDED to have children.

That being said, here's my point, and please feel free to share on this. I have seen more than a few people (be it from a distance, or through channels), who have become pregnant by accident. Well, it's 2012, it's bound to happen. 15 and 16 year old girls and boys are bound to get too curious for their own goods, and that's just what happens. I'd like to omit these teenage cases from this immediate discussion, the innumerable debatable "situations" are just ridiculous, and the arguments never end...

Anyway, back on track here. People get pregnant by "accident", and I completely understand that. People will make their own choices, and they will be landed with the "consequences". Therein lies my discomfort for this whole thing. Whether or not the child was conceived by accident, or on purpose, I don't like that these children become viewed as the consequences. To me, the word consequence is almost synonymous with punishment. This is how I see a lot of people who end up with accidental pregnancies responding. This disappoints me to no end. While I realize that these people, be they 19 year old party animals with aspirations of being the manager at their local McDonald's, or 20-something college students with their eye on a doctorate in Astrophysics, did not ASK for children, they were still given a gift. And not the same kind of gift as the cheap, ugly reindeer sweater their grandmother gave them at Christmas last year. It's nonreturnable, and it's the gift that will keep giving as long as you nurture it.

I guess the basic point of this discussion is that children are not burdens, punishments, mishaps, or the end of a person's life. I absolutely HATE hearing about couples, or two individuals brought together by the pregnancy, where one, or even both of the parents, don't appreciate the gift, and want nothing to do with it. In worse cases, one parent, typically the mother, is excited, and is welcoming the challenge and the joy equally, while the father insists that he didn't ask for it, and therefore he doesn't want it. This attitude leaves the mother in a horrible, stressful situation. In turn, after the pregnancy, if he continues with this attitude, we have yet another child who is growing up without their father. As a father myself, it breaks my heart to think of my daughter not having me there to lift her up when she's too short, read her a story at night, take her back to bed when she wakes up scared... all the little things these ungrateful individuals have no comprehension of.

In short, they don't know what they're missing. I'll leave you all with that thought. I hope that any of you reading this who know somebody like this, will share this with them. Let them read it. Appreciate the gift you were given when your child comes into this world...