SHIH-FU:

With children, if there are conflicts between the couple, the children act as a buffer. With such a common bond, such a shared interest, a couple cannot make a big deal of trivialities and they will not split up because of minor differences. Of course, it is easy to get divorced in the U.S., but as practitioners, such an extreme situation should rarely arise.

In China in the old days, there were well known household practitioners who did well in their practice while raising a large family at the same time. It never was the case that their children stopped them from practicing. I see that trend in China and this present trend in the U.S. as transient periods. Now, people here are involved in many activities, and they are keeping their families small, but in the future things will change, and perhaps they will change to something similar to that of old China.

Of course, realistically, children take up a great deal of your time, and with few exceptions in this Center, people who have children find it difficult to come to many of the functions here. My opinion is this: if you are just beginning to practice, not having children is a good situation to be in.

STUDENT:

So, you are saying that for beginning practitioners, it would be best not to have children?

SHIH-FU: