Why would you do it, then?

Is parenting a good investment?

Well, one way of thinking about it would be whether children wind up being economically beneficial. Unless they happen to grow up and send you massive payments as recompense, most parents would say that children are not the sort of economic investment from which you recover much of your principal.

But perhaps they are a different sort of investment, where you put money in to get something else of even greater value such as companionship or admiration. So, maybe parenting is more of a wise purchase than an investment, technically speaking. But here again there are problems. Even if some children perform quite well, they still have massive negative balances from all their inconvenience and frustration costs (in addition to money). Plus some children never pay off at all.

So it seems like children aren’t enough of a benefit to justify the cost. But what’s the purpose, then? Well, you get to grant another being existence, nurture, devotion, and sacrifice, all of which they will never fully appreciate. And that is precisely why you don’t become a parent because it’s a good investment. You become a parent because it’s a God-like investment.