Estate planning

For all the contemporary angst about how terrible it is having to care for aging parents, I'm surprised more people don't see the wisdom in making some effort to allow the burden to be more widely shared. Someday Dad and I may well be old and decrepit. But the chances that our care will become the heavy task of one person are comparatively low. God willing, the responsibility will fall to at least five adult children rather than one or two.

If and when that time comes, I hope our children will say, "We didn't get diamond chip earrings and X-Boxes for Christmas when we were five years old, but we're sure glad to have each other now." This provision for them which God has graciously enabled us to make seems so much more beneficial. People and families last longer than childhoods. I'm not clear on why "family planning" focuses so much on the latter.