10   Field Trips

All those great field trips that you didnt get to take as a child are now availiable to you for fun and adventure.  Granted chasing after not one, but dozens of children can frazzel the nerves.

9   Braggin Rights

The age old "My kid did this" or "My kid is this big" conversations around the water cooler at work are invaluable.  Nothing builds up your own self esteem like the belief that your child is truly gifted.

8   Toys

You now have an excuse to get all those cool toys you never could have as a child.  A Green Machine will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

7  Entertainment

Oh the hours I have spent just watching my boys punch balloons, run into walls, fall from assorted heights and dodge serious harm by a hair.  The entertainment value cannot be over estimated.

6   God Like

Until children reach a certain age where they can think for themselves, they will believe anything you say just because you have said it.  Used correctly, this can be a very entertaining thing in itself.

5   Excuse not to go to work

Before you have children it takes an act of god for there be a good enough reason to be late, much less not show up at all, for work.  After children it is almost a given that you will miss at least one day every two weeks for assorted Dr appointments, school events, sickness and injury. 

4   Live Pay Per View Events

Vince McMahon wishes he could capture the boxing/wrestling that goes on in my house everyday.  Between my two boys my wifes daily waredrobe has turned into black and white vertical stripes on everything.  They cannot exist in the same space for more than fifteen minutes before one really gets under the other skin, and physical retaliation is the only possible response.  Nothing makes me smile like when a two year old sneaks up on the 3 year old and gets in a pinch and then runs away and locks the door to avoid the backlash.

3   Potty Training

At first glance one might think that potty training has no place on a list of reasons for having kids.  But, the first time your child goes potty on the toilet by themselves the reaction that parents have is right along the lines of what happened to the general public in Times Square New York when they announced that Japan had surrendered ending World War II.

2   Great Waiters

Once your children reach an age where they can talk and understand simple commands, nothing makes a soda from the fridge taste any better than having your child get it for you so you dont have to get off the couch.