Unattached men in their twenties who prate about the importance of having children are a sad bore.
What is more, while their female counterparts suffering from the highly contagious babymania usually focus on how nice it would be to have a pet infant-- while they seem to forget that babies last but the shortest while before becoming cunning, yet unwise humans with arms, legs and agency who will either cause or do themselves much mischief in 18 years-- the males focus on less certain, and far less meaningful things. "I must not be a genetic dead end," they say, without suggesting any traits they possess which are of especial value to the gene pool.
This focus on the post-mortem is, I believe, rooted in dread of death. It is a desire for a sort of vicarious afterlife, and will profit them little. I do confess, however, that they may really feel a desire to be the loving papa, and simply find it more embarassing to be sentimental than do girls.
I am not against people reproducing, by any means. Many parents find great joy and comfort in their children, though it should be noted that many other parents, hopefully fewer, find their children a disappointment.
Young men are generally unhappy and disconnected from the reality of life. If the military chose to pick men at their physical peak, the draft age would be 28, not 18. I think they are very apt to live too much in the hypothetical future, and to pin too much of their hopes of happiness on things which may never come to pass, and which, when they do arrive, rarely meet their lofty expectations.
