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PARENTING
Raising Children is My Greatest Accomplishment
Have I wasted my life?
I was scrolling through social media and someone equated my worth to that of a cancer cell.
On the Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett, divorce attorney James Sexton delivers this stunner, “Your greatest accomplishment in life is your children? Let me ask you this. What will your children’s greatest accomplishment in life be? Having children? Because, guess what, this is the ideology of a cancer cell. Growth, for the sake of growth, for the sake of growth, for the sake of growth. Reproduction for the sake of reproduction. I don’t think that’s the highest, noblest goal. I think there should be something in there about quality of life, about making the world or the experience of others better.”
There’s a lot to unpack here. First, Sexton is confusing the process of raising children with the process of creating children. If your sole contribution to the development of a human child was the donation of sperm, it probably does not ascend to the level of accomplishment. Congratulations. You ejaculated. Teenage boys do it in their sleep.
For women, on the other hand, even the process of creating a child could well be considered an accomplishment. If a man spent more than 9 months on a project, lost countless…
