In Japan, I have never had the sense that parents want nothing more than for their kids to grow up and get out of the house so they can get on with their lives. Many American parents seem to have a lot of ambivalence about their children and the way in which having them takes away their freedom personally and economically. While I'm sure some Japanese parents feel this way, too, as a society, I don't get a strong sense of this the same way I get it from the West. In Japan, it certainly seems that children are completely wanted and seen as more important than the needs or desires of the parents.
I'll miss this sense that people who have children actually want them and see them as fully integrated members of the family forever rather than someone to be pushed out of the nest at the earliest possible chance.
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