It's no secret that modern society treats having children as a personal choice or as an option, and often not a very good one. Whether somebody should have children is discussed as though it should be based on feelings like the "urge" to have children or whether you "like" children. How do you think about having children?

Personally, I've always wanted children since I was the age of majority myself (I mean 18), and the more I've thought about it, the stronger and more sophisticated my thoughts on the subjects have become. To dive right into it, here are the academic and theoretical ponderings I have on this subject:

• Having children is as natural an act as eating, breathing, sleeping, speaking, or drinking water. There are no people without children. (Every adult today was a child in the past.)

• No man is an island. No person birthed or raised themselves. We are all the products of others.

• You are not merely an individual, you are a link in an unending chain that stretches back in time to the dawn of mankind, a connection between the past and the future. A choice to not have children is the penultimate nihilistic, self-hating act. Worse than suicide, which only impacts you as an individual (if you already had and raised children) it ends your whole line.

• A mark of maturity, one might even say the most important mark of adulthood, is having and raising children. Can you even be a proper person if you can't care for the next generation?

• Some in society has suggested that having children is selfish, but it's far more selfish not to. To accept the gifts of your parents and your wider society in raising you as a child whilst refusing to produce heirs to your lineage and your wider culture to instead focus on your individual desires? That is the ultimate selfishness. It is literally "ultimate", it is final, it is the last selfish act which will ever happen if it snuffs out the light of humanity.

• The purposes served in having children are not often discussed, but at the very least, they are as follows: Children are the future, and so the perpetuation of human lineage, culture, knowledge, technology, and society depends on them. Having children passes on your genes, and raising children passes on your values, traditions, and culture. In some cases, you can also pass on trades or professional skills (even though this is less common in the modern era).

Last but not least, as a father of three children, I find I enjoy their company. I love them move than anything, and more each day.