"SEC S11W1: Challenging Your Beliefs About Motherhood and Paternity"

Greetings from the motherland-Cameroon to friends of Colombia Original community. I welcome you all to my blog as I share my presentation for the week 1 engagement challenge season 11.

The topic for this week's challenge is about “Challenging Your Beliefs about Motherhood and Fatherhood”. This presentation will dwell on the guiding questions below.

Do you think that a man or a woman is incomplete if they are not a father or a mother?

The decision to become a mother or a father is the sole responsibility of an individual to decide whether they are fit to become parents.

People have different motives for becoming parents, and I always believed that humans have self-interest first. Some decided to become mothers or fathers because they think that in their old age, their kids will cater for them.

Notwithstanding, as I earlier said, it is a personal decision to make and if someone decides not to become a father or a mother, he or she should not be considered incomplete. There is no incomplete human being and people go into parenting based on the resources they have.

Do you think that a father or a mother should put aside their goals or dreams for their children?

Becoming a parent takes lots of responsibility for both the father and the mother. I always think that life is very unpredictable and along the way, we might face some challenges that warrant us to put our kids first before our goals.

Unfortunately, society has made it a way that most often women are the ones that put aside their dreams to focus on their kid's upbringing. This is common in patriarchal societies where women are subdued to stay at home to cater for their kids.

However, both parents can at one point or the other forget about some unrealistic goals to care for the children. It should not only be the woman that forgoes her dreams for the kids. It is the sole responsibility of both mother and father to at one point put aside those unrealistic goals for the sake of the children.

What vision do you have of people who decide not to have children?

I always believed that as adults, we take decisions that we are ready to face the consequences. Deciding not to have children has its own good and bad consequences in the long run.

Nonetheless, I will say the future is complicated if many people decide not to have kids. At one point, we might face an ageing society where manpower will be low, this will affect society as a whole in a negative way.

My vision for them is that they might feel that their goals in life do not warrant a family and they think not having kids makes you mentally healthy. The truth is in your old age you need help and if everyone decides not to have kids, who will give you the type at that moment?

Do you think that to be a mother or father there must be ideal conditions? (economic, social and both physical and mental health) Why?

Of course, parenting is pretty hard if there are poor conditions such as economic hardship, mental health challenges, etc.

Before thinking of becoming a father or a mother, he or she needs some economic stability. This way, the children will not grow under harsh conditions. You will be able to cater for them without stress.

In the case of mental health, it will become more complicated if you venture into having kids when your mental health is not stable.

To become a mother or father, both need to be physically active to be able to carry on with raising children.

In sum, we should not be judgemental about people’s decision not to have children. Everyone has his reason for not wanting to become a parent or becoming a parent. The bottom line should be that we should be able to face the consequences of our decisions and not lay blames on others. I will invite @majerius, @josepha, @mesola, @paholags, and @saxopedia to share their entries to this challenge.

All Images are my personal property from my phone gallery.