Those awful children are ruining my life!

I was suprised to find a news article that quoted psychotherapist Jeanne Safer, author of Beyond Motherhood: Choosing a Life Without Children. The title of this book shocked me almost as much as Ms. Safer's quote:

Couples without children have to know that -- for the early years, at least -- their friends will simply be less available and preoccupied. "If it's a real friendship, that will change over time

It sounds to me as if this psychotherapist and author is saying that these friends are simply excited about this new child, as they might be about a new car or other toy, and that this fascination will wear off and once again the friend will realize that her friends are much more important than mere children.

I decided to look this book up on Amazon.com and found that this book is not alone in the treatment of this topic. In fact, among the piles of books were these titles:

• Families of Two by Laura Carroll
• Baby Not on Board by Jennifer L. Shawne
• Will You Be Mother?: Women Who Choose to Say No by Jane Bartlett
• The Childless Revolution: What It Means to be Childless Today by Madelyn Cain
• Pride And Joy: The Lives And Passions Of Women Without Children by Terri Casey
• Maybe Baby: 28 Writers Tell the Truth About Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness, Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of Their Lives by Lori Leibovich
• Women Without Children: The Reasons, the Rewards, the Regrets by Susan S. Lang, and
• Reconceiving Women: Separating Motherhood from Female Identity by Mardy S. Ireland

All this while our nation is bordering on the edge of a negative population growth. How self-centered can you be to decide you don't want to have children because they cost so much or take up so much of your time? Apparently folks have forgotten what God says about children:

Psalm 127:3 Children are an inheritance from the LORD. They are a reward from him. The children born to a man when he is young are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them.