I completely understand someone not wanting to have or not wanting to bring kids into this mess, but I also don’t think this is a gotcha.
Why not? Some people do not want to be a parent and never have. Just like others do not want to become dentists or accountants.
I never had kids, but being a school bus driver has made me regret not having kids. Being a school bus driver has also made me thrilled to the fucking core that I never had kids.
There's a H U G E difference between your kids and other people's kids.
As a bus driver, you're basically working in a penitentiary and coming to the conclusion everyone's a criminal. Well... Yeah...
Yeah, I don't really like other people's kids that much. I don't really like anyone quite the way I like my own kids either. But I don't besmirch anyone not having kids, I respect the decision. I don't want people having kids they don't want. I also know that I wanted kids, but after having them, and as they've grown, I realize I didn't quite understand it. But hey, this is life.
Plus if you really regret not having children you can always become a foster parent/adopt.
On the other hand: what if you do have children and you regret that? Start killing?
Fake your death, orphan your kids, why kill them. Plus, it has a benefit that you can disappear from your old life and start anew! Somewhere in Finland or Norway or Japan.
That's my answer everytime. Tbf I love children I just don't want to be a parent, but if some day I regret it I can adopt!
My family always say "oh it's not the same, you don't know where they came from"
MF my children would have more mental health issues than anyone out there. Also I have 2 dogs and 2 cats that I love more than anything and Idk where they came from either. If I can love pets I can love a child even more.
An adopted girl I knew would say "your parents were stuck with you, but my parents chose me!"
I would MUCH rather be unhappy that I didn't have kids than unhappy that I did.
It's never too late to become a banker.
There's nothing wrong with having kids. There's also nothing wrong with not having kids. Why are people so aggressive toward the other side?
because (IMHO) a lot of people that have kids either didn't time it right or didn't think it through, or it happened by accident.
and they are now wishing to get their freedom back.
kids (I'm sure) can be great and worth the return on investment.. but there's immense pressure on them to do well as a representation of the parents.
sucks.. but it do be that way.
I planned my kids and still can't wait to get some of my freedom back. Both can be true.
No amount of babysitting or exposition can truly show you show how relentless having kids is. Timing and planning will help alleviate that. But you are still one flu away from two weeks of hell. And that's when your kids are healthy.
Absolutely right. I was living in a party house before I met my wife, and at that time I would've laughed at the idea I'd have kids. Fast forward three and a half years, and I'm married with a kid, and eventually two, and now they're not babies anymore, or toddlers, and so while they can absolutely still be a burden, it also comes with an enormous amount of upside.
I've always firmly believed that without winter there is no summer, and so nothing is always the ideal situatiion you'd like it to be. And so yeah, winter comes and my wife and I get that household anxiety that there will be a stomach bug, but it is what it is. We cancel plans, we've missed thanksgiving and Christmas, but we've also had amazing times that wouldn't have been the same without them. The good and the bad, and the ugly, because I like spaghetti westerns even though my family thinks they're boring.
People overlook an obvious factor: having a kid physically changes your brain, and therefore how you perceive parenting. I know of lots of instances of this change happening anecdotally, someone radically changes their stance after an unplanned pregnancy.
Neither side is necessarily wrong, but choosing one or the other impacts who you are as a person so it's not as obvious as "I definitely [will/won't] regret it". So skip the social pressure and pro/anti natalist personal debates, but also don't hold too much blame against someone who struggles to grasp your mindset.
I can buy this. I knew 100% I could raise a kid. I was fairly certainly I wanted children. We had my first kid, and I got more certain. Only as I had a second and they've grown older and I watch them develop and become people do I realize it was the right decision. I don't think you can know it's the right decision until it's done.
And the inverse (maybe not inverse) is true too, with people who knew they wanted to have kids, only to discover they were wrong.
Life's complicated for sure. That's it. I wanted to put a but, but there's no but. This is not a decision that has a clear right and wrong to it. It's a thing. There's 8 billion of us here, so it's not some special thing, even though it is.
Some people may think that by not having kids, their lives would be incomplete. But still having kids is one thing, but raising them right is quite another ball game.
In all fairness that's an awful comparison and they really need to just have better comebacks
Why is it awful? Pretty nicely makes the point in my books
Is it likely that someone would not want to be a banker in their 20s and change their mind in their 30s?
I didn't want kids in my 20s. Got them in my late 30s. Best decision ever. Your mileage may vary.
Is it likely that someone would not want to be a banker in their 20s and change their mind in their 30s
Yes, obviously. Some people want to be bankers, some don't, and that's OK. The only weird thing is when bankers say that everyone will want to be a banker one day, and even if you don't like it, you have to anyway, you will have no choice but to love it later.
Except both their parents were 'bankers'. As were yours and mine. And our all grandparents. Indeed, every single predecessor, ever.
That's where it falls down, regardless of how one might feel about parenthood. It's just not a very good analogy.
We are not genetically wired to be bankers. Though I'm not sure there is anything equivalent to compare properly.
Some people aren't "genetically wired" to make kids either. Just like you don't have this strong urge to start dishing out credits and tie pens to the desks with curly wires, I don't have this genetic urge to make kids, and it's exactly as weird to me when someone says to me that I'll love it when I get them or whatever
Can we not turn Lemmy into an insufferably smug r/childfree, full of teens/20 somethings hating on sprogs?
I didn't have kids until my late 30s, never had pressure from anyone to have them and certainly didn't get upset on the super-rare occasions that folk asked if I was thinking of having them.
Live your life, make your own call on your life decisions and don't allow yourself to be pressured by anyone. Having children should be your decision and yours alone, and ultimately it's noone else's business.
But to hate on kids is not healthy, and should never be normalised.
This is less childfree and more "every woman wants to be a mother of course!!!"
Like want to get your tubes tied? Nope we're not gonna do that because then you can't be a mother!!!
I'm purposefully exaggerating so you get the vibe, but this is a real problem facing women
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