The impact of parent in a child's life is so great, I know more about it now that I'm married, though I'm yet to have my own baby but I know the stress I go through before I could cater for my needs, my wife, my initial family and that of my in-law. It's not an easy thing at all, it's right from when the child is in the womb that the parent will would have started going through all kinds of stress and spending money. And then when you give birth to that child, you start taking care of him or her, you buy baby food, buy pampers, buy clothes and all that's needed. One funny thing about babies is that when they are sick you may not know the nature of their sickness because they can't talk so you just have to keep guessing.
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My friend had this same issue with his baby few months ago, the little girl was just crying, at first they thought it was teeth, but it's not, they took her to the hospital and they started doing different kinds of test, the incident happened very late in the night, both the husband and the wife were outside that night looking for solutions to what might have happened to their child. After several test in the hospital, they later found out that she had a little problem with her ear, that was known after spending a whole lot of money for tests, and the stress that comes with it is not of this world. They were so worried, because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her in time. The good news was that they were able to get what was wrong with her but the stress they went through that day was beyond their thinking.
When the child is growing up, you think of enrolling them to school, that's another segment of spending, you wouldn't want your kids to go to some public school, enrolling kids into a good private school is not a joke now, the total package is over a hundred thousand naira, depending on the school. Some school are cheaper while some are way costly, it's a matter of choice.
When the child gets to university, it's a nother thing entirely, the school fee is not even the problem but the money for food, money for hostel, money for transportation, money for handouts and so on.
After school, the parent would still contribute to how the child will secure a good job going through their connections, if the have any. After getting a job, the parent will still contribute a great quota when it's time for wedding, most of the preparation is mostly on the parent, it depends on how bouyant they are financially though.
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Imagine a parent go through all this and more for their children and afterwards when the child become someone big in future, forgets their parent, it's so bad. No parent will even pray for that kind of children, we all pray for a child that will love us and will be able to take care of his or her parent.
It will definitely get to a time that parent won't have the strength to work again, they will need the help of the children at that time the most, not necessarily that the child will come stay with them, but assisting them financially by providing someone that can take care of them and also coming around to visit them once in a while is part of it.
It will be fair enough if a child can reciprocate the care he had received from his parent by taking good care of them aswell according to his capability. There should be no pressure from the parent though that will make the child do illegal things just to take care of them. I'll say all responsible parent deserves to be taken care of by their children. I'll also like to be taken of by my children, as I'm also doing the same for my parent now, I make sure I send a reasonable amount of money to them every month asides other things I do.
Anyways in my old age, I don't plan to depend on what my children will give me before I could eat or do anything, and that's why I'm working tirelessly so that I can be independent when I get to that stage, their assistance will only be a plus to what I have already.