What's the point of having kids?

[JimC]

I don't agree that parents have the most influence on their kids.
Actually, it's the kids that they mix with that have the most influence. That's why some parents are prepared to pay enormous sums to buy a house near a good school. They know deep down that their kids will turn out like their schoolmates.

Immigrant kids very quickly speak with the accent of their playmates, not of their parents.
There is an evolutionary reason for this. In a tribal society, it's far safer for a kid to act and talk just like the people that they will be mixing with, as they grow up.
If you act and sound like an outsider, you will get picked on.

So my advice is, if you want your kid to grow up a certain way, choose it's playmates and schoolmates very carefully.

There has been some research that supported this general argument. It basically put genes and peer group on an equal footing, with parenting a distant third, in terms of effects on basic temperament. There were some important provisos; very toxic parenting could still have a major negative effect, health and well-being were strongly influenced by parenting also...

[Tero]

It's up to you. You can populate the planet or leave it to these people.