That's the thing, once you have kids you love them. Despite everything about bringing up kids you love them no matter what. So the only way to avoid it is to not have kids to start with

I am both those parents at all times. Having kids was a terrible idea, caused incredible hardship for my extended family, and I don't recommend anybody do it, ever.

I'd do it again, though. My kids kick ass.

My kid rules and I can't wait for another. He whoops ass. He's gonna be the best comrade one day.

I don't know how common this is, but does anyone else really and thoroughly identify with their kid selves? I remember being put down to nap when I was wide awake and thinking that was bullshit and I still think that was bullshit.

Being unwilling to inflict that on a kid is a big part of why I could never have one.

Honestly the worst part about having kids is having to be at work for 8 hours a day instead of being with them. But having to spend 8 hours making faceless bastards obscene punts of wealth and then getting a measly 2-3 with my kids is fucken bullshit.

those types of child-hating parents are usually people who see "parent" as a noun when it's really a verb. they like the title but not the job, and it fucks up both sides of the relationship.

i did not want to be a parent but married into ready-made family, so i sort of saw my job as a relief pitcher. runners were on base when i got to the mound, so brother i'm just trying to throw heat and get us out of the inning.

i accepted the kids as they came and encouraged what best i could infer as their most fulfilling and rewarding traits and habits. and i won't lie, i put way more in than i got back (so far) but that's the job. no complaints here.

well, maybe one: as a step, it stings when you see your biological counterpart get a hero's welcome for remembering to venmo some cash over to the kid three days after their birthday. but comparison is the thief of joy, etc. and, like i said, it's not the kids' fault. if he'd been better at the job, i wouldn't have had my chance to "pitch" after all.

I'm inclined to assume the parents who speak in those terms were the sort that maybe rushed into parenthood due to social / familial pressure. It sucks that there is still a lot of pressure to have kids even when it's more and more difficult / risky financially.

I don't have kids but I imagine it's kinda like how I feel about my dog. Every day I get annoyed with her because she's really stubborn when I walk her, constantly pulling the leash because she found a used tissue on the ground and wants to eat it. At least every other night she'll start barking at 3 am because she heard a squirrel in the backyard and I have to walk down 2 flights of stairs to tell her to shut up. I complain a lot about her, she costs a lot of money and effort, but then I come home and she's wagging her tail all happy to see me and it's all worth it.

I imagine having kids is like that but on steroids. More stress, more responsibility, more money, but having your toddler smile at you as you put them to bed has to hit like pure crack.

I don't believe in the nuclear family and the sort of sense of patriarchal ownership and belongingness that made it so easy to advertise about at the advent of print media is the same sort of shit that makes all the power concentration of private ownership of the means of production possible. It probably wouldn't be as cringe if you had a child rearing community with a bunch of enrichment, education, and food around that kids had access to (or whatever kids need).

I don't know what it would take, but collectively you'd have to get over the dollar as the communication of worthiness of survival, you'd have to have industry that was more than an instrument of getting the means of survival (like a worthwhile state project), and you'd really have to have a community that gave a shit about being more than just me and my little temporarily embarrassed empire