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So Like, Who “Deserves” To Be A Parent?

It’s a heady question — with no real answer.

Ted Bauer
5 min readMay 15, 2023

Just for context upfront here, I’ve currently spent about $31,000 trying to be a dad, and I’m rolling zeroes on all that. It’s hard, and obviously days purporting to “celebrate” mothers and fathers can be triggering, even if I’m happy for 99.3% of people who get to climb that particular life mountain. Would I be lying if I didn’t admit it all causes some resentment? Absolutely, I’d be lying. There is some resentment involved in the whole infertility journey:

I also happen to watch a bunch of true crime. Just this morning, I came across two gems. In the first one, a couple in Bunnell, Florida that had three kids had the cops called to their house, which was essentially a tenement filled with cockroaches, feces, kids trapped in a room without air circulation, and drug paraphenalia:

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Ted Bauer
Ted Bauer

Written by Ted Bauer

I write about a lot of different topics, from work to masculinity to relationships and social dynamics, I.e. modern friendship. Pleasure to be here.

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