If there is one thing that responsible parents can agree on, raising a child well is not an easy task.
Any parenting expert will tell you that simply feeding and clothing them is not even covering the bare minimum of their needs.
As we all know, no human is perfect.
Therefore, there is no possible way we can ever raise a child perfectly.
The best we can ever hope for is to raise them the best we can, and that they will turn out relatively alright in the end.
That, however, is obviously easier said than done – there is just so much to consider when it comes to trying to raise a child right.
And what about us, as fully-grown adults?
Part of growing up is learning how to unpack the past hurts and mature, in addition to dealing with the emotional schemas we have inherited from our ancestors.
It is just a lot to deal with, and many of us suffer from it all more than we would like – for example, 27-year-old Raphael Samuel.
There is plenty of younger people who talk about how it wasn’t their fault that they were born, but Samuel is taking it to the next level.
After dealing with the difficulty that is life and all the mental anguish and torment it brings, Samuel has decided to actually sue his parents for bringing him into the world without his consent.
It may appear initially as a joke, but Samuel is quite serious about this and has actually taken his parents – who are both lawyers – to court over the matter.
A self-described anti-natalist, Samuel – who also goes by the name “Nihilanand” – is a member of a growing movement that believes successful procreation is morally and ethically wrong.
The reasoning these folks have?
Babies never consented to the idea of being born – rather, their birth was for the pleasure of someone else, and it is not fair that they have no say in a life that can potentially be full of misery.
Samuel certainly seems to agree with this.
In a Facebook post, he blames his feelings about life and all the negative things that happened to him on the ‘narcissistic’ act of his parents that brought him into this world.
He even likens giving birth to a child and forcing it to find a career as basically the same thing as kidnapping and slavery.
You might think that all this would not have endeared the man to his parents or vice versa, but the reality is surprising – Samuel has described the relationship between himself and his parents as a relatively good and loving one.
In fact, in response to the backlash he has since received from the internet at large, he claims that his parents are quite proud of him for thinking independently – even if they are being taken to court as a result.
As it turns out, it wasn’t a lie either – Kavita Karnard, Samuel’s mother, later released a statement that confirmed the man’s parents are genuinely proud of their son for thinking outside the box.
At the very least, there seems to be no animosity whatever between the two, even as they prepare to bring their case before the court.