The hostility to humanity's most basic urge, procreation, always struck me about Rand. None of her women were mothers.
The problem is that it is simply not possible to put yourself first and be a halfway decent parent at the same time. So children in the World of Rand are pure evil because they require altruistic sentiments and behavior that compromise the heroic self-sufficiency of her Supermen and Superwomen.
Agreed. If one is a nihilist or in Rand's case an "objectivist" there is nothing more important than oneself. There is no room for children or marriage since that would call for sacrifice of the all important "self" and that self's wishes and desires.
She may not have had many characters with children, but I don't see procreation as altruistic. If you're smart, you can learn so much more about the world by interacting with or just observing children that you can use to make other aspects of your life better.
Good point. Being a mom and loving it, maybe that's why I couldn't warm to her, though I agree that Atlas can shrug and is trying to right now in illegal-alien-infested states.