Disclaimer: I'm not knocking having children. And as I said a few weeks ago, I've never had the option of starting a family. Is it bad when you have to add disclaimers to your blogs on a regular basis?

'tis the season for sprogging, apparently. One of my best mates from uni welcomed his first, a daughter, into the world Thursday last. Paul, bloke I work with, had a son yesterday morning. Adam's kid'll be here in four or five weeks. And this means a couple of things. One, that they all shagged around the same time. Two, the human race will probably keep going for a little while. Three, there's a chance that they are the reincarnations of Ed Mcmahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

Again, I have nothing against having kids. Sometimes I hope for my own someday. And maybe when I do I'll understand this. . .but I really don't get why couples who have just had a kid are 'proud parents.' They've just managed to do what people have been doing for quite a while. Maybe one day I'll eat these words, and I'd have no problem with that.

I can understand full of love, amazed, overjoyed, at peace with the world, or fascinated at the birth of one's kid, but proud? All that's happened is some crying, quite a bit of excretion, and some sleeping. Are parents proud of themselves at having brought this new life in to the world? Because, to be a bastard, if Octomom can do it I think anyone can.

I think the time to be proud is when the kid's grown up and become a decent person. If you manage to raise a kid nowadays with all the instant gratification, sense of entitlement, media, and other people's bad parenting that abounds, then you have every right to be proud.