Busting the baby myth

One week into fatherhood I have arrived at two realizations.

1. Money should not be a consideration when deciding whether to have a baby or not.
2. Anyone who says, 'It's all worth it once you see your baby.', is a liar.

First things first -- one does not need a lot of money to have a baby. Admittedly it is not cheap, but lets face it, people all over the world, from many walks of life, have children EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY. I am positive that there is a doctor + hospital combination somewhere near that will be more than happy to help bring your child into the world. Even if they aren't happy, you can always throw the Hippocratic Oath in their faces.

Now, for those people who say, 'It's all worth it...', I advise all my dear women readers (er, dear woman lang pala) to take that statement with a grain of salt. While I am certain that seeing one's child for the first time is utterly exhillerating, once that abrupt panacea subsides the somber reality of privates being stitched, late night feedings, and consuming diapers like tissues swiftly takes root. Yes, it is all worth it, but not for a long long time.

So what do these two divergent points have in common? Based on these two realizations I have arrived at my First Theorem of Fatherhood, 'A baby can only be successful as a decision'. To explain further, I could have decided that it costs too much to pay for a pregnancy, labor and diapers; I could have decided that raising a child is too much of a hassle and tuned myself out to the experiece. Either of those decisions would have been easy to make.

Yet here I am at two in the morning, waiting for my one week old daughter to finish feeding so that I can burp her. I've decided to be a father, and this is the most fulfilling decision I have made in my life.