There are many good reasons to have kids. Beer-fetchers. Garden-mowers. They support you in old age. They are a legitimate excuse to watch cartoons. They provide an object to be named humourously.

But the most important reason is more subtle.

Lets start with Nazi concentration camps. Viktor Frankl, a psycho-analyst, survived 5 years in WWII camps. He watched many people die, go crazy and lose their principles. He observed men give up on life and die. He took notes. His conclusion: The only survivors of the camps were those that had some greater purpose. Some unfinished business. In other words, only he who was living for something other than himself survived.

This is the key to meaning in life. Living for something other than yourself. Ask not what the world can do for you, ask what you can do for the world.

That’s why kids are important. It is very difficult to ignore the primal instinct to do everything you can to look after your kids. To protect them from the world. To help get as far ahead in life as possible.

Kids make you unselfish. They give you purpose. They suck you out of the natural tendency to do everything for yourself.

And purpose is the answer to happiness and long life. Some people already have purpose. But many people don’t… many people are searching… and when children come the search is ended.