A good parent? Certainly. Not quite as good a parent? Not sure. Thing if it is, I have literally dreaded being a parent my entire life. Not a selfish thing, but a "the cycle ends here" sort of thing. I had naturally assumed that the rigors of parenting would reveal me to be the selfish, incompetent asshole I truly am as a wailing blob of protoplasm rendered my true self to the detriment of all. At 25 I still woulda done a damn fine job, and my entire worldview would have shifted that much earlier. I was raised to believe in no uncertain terms that kids are terrible and they destroy your life. It couldn't be further from the truth. And the gap between those positions is one filled with personal and familial insights that I'd rather not plumb.