Should people with mental illnesses have children?

I had to respond to your post. You are entitled to your opinions and all, but this post disturb me. I am  a father of two and would never give them up. I may be in a small majority , but I would still have them. People with a MI's should,can and are happy, loving parents. I know some normal parents are abuse their kids in awful ways. I don't feel as though I lowered the gene pool. I hope you can see past your anger. This is a site for support. By writing what you did you may very well upset someone. Maybe they were thinking of being parents and you put the idea that's bad or wrong. Like I said it's your opinion, but become more aware of how your words affect others.

I am blessed/cursed with always being able to see two sides to every argument.  (See -- I don't even know if it's a blessing or a curse!)  So I will just say I walk the line on this one.  I would never have been a fit mother because most of my adult life (certainly the childbearing years) I was mentally ill and would not have been able to give them the stability they deserved.  But I would have given them a lot of love, certainly.  And I cannot even imagine being abusive to a child.  But a mother who is constantly depressed and suicidal and hearing voices?  My own father was very negative and I hated him for it.  I prayed that God would kill him when I was a child.  I don't want to be responsible for passing that legacy on to the next generation.

Still, I would not counsel another person with MI to forego having children simply because they have MI, are taking antipsychotics, etc.  There are very responsible MI parents who take their meds as prescribed, get therapy when they need it, and are able to minister to others beyond themselves.  And I think they could do a good job of loving and raising them.  No parents are perfect.  No children are perfect.  There is always risk involved in any endeavor.  I say if you really want children and feel you are ready for them, go ahead.

Carolyn

P.S. You do have to be careful not to generalize and put all of us with MI into one all-enveloping group and assign characteristics that do not fit us as individuals.  At the Schizophrenia.com site, I used to post and reply regularly.  However, once, I said I had filled out the paperwork to be permanently taken off of the jury duty roles.  I did not think I would be able to pay attention during a trial enough to make a good decision about guilty or not guilty.  Someone made a blistering reply that EVERYONE had a DUTY to be a juror when asked and that I was totally wrong to try to get out of it.  It upset me so much that I have never gone back to that site.  I switched to this one.  Please do consider the effect of your words.

Carolyn