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September 2, 2005
vanity, thy name is junior
I don't presume to generalize about why people have kids. There are obviously many avenues to that decision. Some of the parents I know love their kids quite obviously, and are engaged, involved parents of engaged, well-mannered children; I'm sure they had kids for all the right reasons, even if I don't quite understand. That makes sense enough; if I understood, I'd probably want kids. Fine. More often, though, I see parents who rotely blundered into the baby-making circumstance, like they blunder into most, simply because they failed to imagine another possible future. I've also met parents who failed to master the complexities of unrolling a condom, who wanted a kid that matches their couch, who wanted someone to love them, who had something to prove, and even who wanted extra hands on the farm. All are varying degrees of abhorrent, but no one so much as the vain parent. You know the type. His child is his path to immortality, his chance to raise a little version of himself. Same values, same interests and, all too often, same name. Is there any more narcissistic act than naming your child after yourself, really? Every time I meet a junior, I hear "vanity project."
posted by john at 1:05 PM • permalink