0:57
Eric Siu reflects on parenting, his reluctance to have kids, and how his upbringing shaped him. He explores whether to follow societal expectations or choose your own values, and what that means for raising the next generation.
Eric Siu reflects on parenting, his reluctance to have kids, and how his upbringing shaped him. He explores whether to follow societal expectations or choose your own values, and what that means for raising the next generation.
If I ever had a kid, which, you know, I probably wouldn't, which is a whole other topic. If I ever did have a kid, I'd just be like super chill. And he was like, well, look how I turned out. Like, yeah, I was like miserable, but I like accomplished all these things. And I was like, uh. And it sort of goes to your point. People are like, went through all this misery, but like, you seem to be doing well, don't you? And it goes to this like broader existential question, which is just like, what's like the meaning of life? I don't think in an existential philosophical point there is any inherent meaning. You get to choose. And if your meaning in life is like he or she who dies with the most toys wins, then like maybe, yeah, this is the way you want to raise yourself to be raised and raise others. But if your meaning is a little bit different, which for me it's more around I wanted to do the things that I want to do, which requires recognizing they might not be the things society wants me to do, well then, you know, the upbringing I went through clearly helped make me who I am today, but it's not the same behaviors and rules that I want to follow going forward.
