OPINION: Why do you love your parents?

By Moses Baguma 

I certainly know that most of you aren't ready for this discussion but I really don't care about your feelings. 

Most of us love our parents simply because they gave us a "gift" of life. But has anyone ever asked themselves whether their parents indeed intended to give birth to them? 

Do you know that probably immediately after learning about your conception, your parents got depressed about the prospect of you coming into existence? 

Have you ever wondered if your parents might have pondered terminating the pregnancy as a means of avoiding giving you life? 

Because regrets after conception are very common amongst people and that we can't ascertain whether indeed our parents loved the idea of giving us life at the moment they copulated; it's really very possible that many of us were just undesired consequences of our parents' sexual pleasure. 

But anyway, even if your parents had full intention to give birth to you, I nolonger think that each of us should love our parents for giving us a 'gift' of life. 

For the little time I've been on earth and with the contemplations I've made and to the depth I've gone during those contemplations, I honestly don't think that life is a gift. It's really not worth living -- however noble or wealthy one might be. 

No one can successfully escape all troubles of life. The rich face pain just as the poor. Kings, Queens and presidents face trouble just like the dregs of society. Clerics are not sure of going to heaven upon death, just as the sinful. Humankind combined, lives with a constant fear of death and all humans are prone to sickness. 

Don't troubles of life outweigh its pleasures?

Isn't it better to have never been born? 

Reader, don't get me wrong. I'm not asking you to hate or stop loving your parents for making you see the sun's light for the very first time. I'm only asking you to change the reason for loving your parents. 

I'm of a view that each of us should love our parents -- not for giving us a "gift" of life -- but for accepting the responsibility that comes with putting someone into existence. 

Giving birth is a decision two parents take without the child's consent and therefore, it should be the parents' utter responsibility to guarantee the best life possible for their offspring(s). 

Choosing to give someone life without any sense of responsibility for that someone is the worst level of inhumanity. This might be harsh but I'll put it at across; a parent(s) who sires or gives birth to children and doesn't strive to give them the best he/she can is not worth any love from the same children. 

Reader, your parent might not have taken you to the best schools; they may not have reared you on the best delicacies; they may not have thrown those lavish birthday parties to you; they may not have dropped and picked you from school with a posh vehicle; they may not have fattened your purse as you left for that boarding school; but if they got out of their way to give you the best they could, it's just enough. They accepted the responsibility that comes with procreation and must have wished better for you. 

As responsible parents are worth much love from their children, irresponsible parents are worth the indifference they receive  from their children.