David Cormack: My hopes for daughter's future

David Cormack hopes the world daughter Greta grows up in is fairer and more equal.

COMMENT: I have a 5-month-old daughter that I love very much. She's just discovered her feet. She will stare with wonder and awe at these weird appendages that seem to be a part of her but she hasn't noticed until now.

She's also just started using the Jolly Jumper. We put her in it and she laughs and giggles and leaps up and down. It's unbridled glee, while she's in a bridle.

I hope that she will always find wonder and awe and glee in the world. I hope that the world she blossoms into is one that is better than the one I experience, and better than the one her grandparents experienced.

I hope that the world she grows up in is one where she is not judged for what's between her legs, where she doesn't gain privilege for her skin colour, where her sexuality and sexual identification don't hinder or help her in any way. They just are. They are a part of who she is and how she is made up but they do not push her forward or hold her back in gaining opportunities.

I hope that when she is an adult, that we will have magically figured out some technology to mitigate against climate change, so that wherever she chooses to live doesn't experience wild and extreme weather events.

I hope that we have graduated away from fossil fuels given that it's only 100 fossil fuel companies that are responsible for over 70 per cent of the world's harmful emissions. I hope that it's not her generation's responsibility to fix this because it sure as hell hasn't been her generation that caused it.

I look at her and I hope she has a future where people's lives aren't determined by where they are born. That a child raised in New Zealand will have the same opportunities as a child raised in Scandinavia and the same as a child raised in Chad. And that my daughter can go and live in any of those countries if she chooses and experience the same quality of life.

I hope that she lives in a world where the government looks after its people, recognising that there is no more capable body than the ruling body to make sure that each and every one of its inhabitants has a quality of life that is comfortable.

I wish for this world to give her the opportunities to work in a job or stay at home and be a parent or not have kids at all. She may choose to not work in a conventional job, but instead make beautiful art in a way that makes people feel.

I hope that no matter what she chooses to do with her life she is able to live it happily and with an expectation of warmth, safety, and comfort.

I hope that the world she becomes a teenager in is one that has finally taught its boys not to harass, not to abuse, not to rape. And I hope that those boys understand that you don't get a cookie for being a decent human being. That you are a decent human being because that's the decent thing to do.

I hope it's a world she can get drunk in and wear skimpy clothing in safety, because I have been able to do those things if I want to, so why shouldn't she?

I hope the world she grows into is a kind world. I hope it is a fair world. I hope it is a good world.

I have a 5-month-old daughter that I love very much. She's just discovered her feet. I look forward to seeing her land on them and become an amazing adult. I hope the world is ready for her.