ChildLess, ChildFree, and Being Fruitful

[Deep Thinkin'!]

You know the best thing about not having children? Not having a daughter. That way you don't have to deal with her dealing with men. Also the dreaded "Dad, I'm pregnant" at 15, subsequently followed with a Shoryuken to the belly.

Or the very opposite. She comes up to you with straight A's because you taught her well.

 

[BlackLantern]

It's a general thing...not directed at anyone in particular. Though there are some ugly kids out there

 

[BlackLantern]

Or the very opposite. She comes up to you with straight A's because you taught her well.

Yes, and the tooth fairy is real and I ride unicorns. We have all seen Maury. You are more likey today to have to deal with the Baby's Daddy then straight A's

 

[Deep Thinkin'!]

Yes, and the tooth fairy is real and I ride unicorns. We have all seen Maury. You are more likey today to have to deal with the Baby's Daddy then straight A's

Granted, but kids vary.

I know a good amount of 15 year old girls who don't touch the male species.

But I'm not denying the chances are greater these days.

 

[Spade]

I don't know fully about which way I lean on the subject. I don't see it as selfish to procreate. Human beings create things- inanimate or otherwise- all the time. We're on the verge of cloning less for the purpose of helping people with cloning new organs for operations and more to say that we as the human race was able to create life. We waste opportunity all the time in our lives. I get older people telling me their sob stories all the time. Their in either of these two groups:

A) They chose to breed like jackrabbits with no intent to provide for and educate their children, and now come to realize that the welfare wasn't nearly as sufficient as they were hoping and that all of their kids grew up to be loafing lazybodies like themselves who won't care for them in their old age...

-or-

B) They chose to sleep around without ever forming a real attachment and come to realize years after they began that they have no real aspirations to do anything with their life outside of going to the next club scene or generally wasting oxygen.

It's hard to say that I would want to raise anyone in this time of violence, but that could be said of every stage of human life regardless of time period or situation. For me, it's a bit more of a serious subject: while I would like a child with someone that I love enough to create a new life with, I know that it's a high chance that my child will be born with the same symptoms of Parkinson's disease that I have. I don't want anyone else to have to experience what I've been through in terms of physical impairment and social isolation, but at the same time I would think that if I marry a woman she would be as willing to devote time to our child as I am and would be as willing as myself to be there for that child through thick and thin like my parents were for me.

Again, I'm torn on my stance. I'm not a prude that's against adoption- my father was legally adopted when his father ended up being a louse and through the circumstances came to love his adopted father, yet recounts of the sort of structure and integrity his stepfather instilled in him to be a better human being. I wouldn't want to create a child in my particular case just for the heck of it because of my aforementioned fears, and if my wife would consent I wouldn't mind adopting. I know for a fact of many kids who end up in horrible situations regardless of age and need a helping hand to guide them in a better fashion than those who would avoid real parenting for their own personal enjoyment or are too involved with their own issues to care.

Above all, I just don't want to be the dad who's responsible for "the little bastard down the street" or "that stuck-up cheerleader". I want to be the one who loves his kid for being the child that he or she is regardless of how they look or end up and no matter how much I have to give up to provide for them. I'm not trying to be a control freak or say that I'm wantonly creating life like I've seen so many other people in group A do, but at the same time I've made my own observation: while life is full of the negative, there's also glimmers of hope all over the place. An example: if there wasn't a Bill Gates or a Stan Lee here, would some of us comic geeks be here in the first place? Life is unpredictable and some people end up with the children who just refuse to be disciplined, but I like that unpredictability and would like to partake in it with someone that I feel more than just lust with. I don't think I eat alot and I'm going to college so I can make an income that would sufficiently provide for my possible child, and I don't think I'm so lost in terms of education that I couldn't teach my kid (biological or not doesn't matter to me) how to become a benefit to society.

Above all, I'd just like to show someone else how enjoyable life can be. Nonexistence may be better for fatalists out there, but I don't think life is so horrible that we all have to be so dreary about it.

 

[Bill]

I don't have anything against those who choose not to have children. In a lot of ways, it's probably for the best.

I think that some parents who are able to have their own children take the process for granted, and they don't understand the undertaking and what it really means to raise a child. My wife can't have children, so imagine her being around her friends who practically shoot them out at will, and then have the gall to complain about their pregnancies and their kids around her. Talk about selfish.

But not having children right away was a wonderful opportunity for us to observe others. And we took it seriously. We watched a rather large selection of our friends and family go through the trails and tribulations of child-rearing and saw all the things that worked and didn't work. We asked questions of couples we knew that had kids that grew up well. So when the time came for us, we had at least a plan of attack.

I never wanted a lot of children, even had we been able. I was happy with one. I am glad that we adopted because I am adopted and I know what it meant to me. The process was long and hard, and I think that every single person about to think about parenting should have to go through it, if for nothing else than to test their committment to having a child.

I think it's a personal decision based on your lifestyle. And I don't think any decision starts out as a bad one when deciding on children as long as it's a responsible one that was a conscious decision. It's what you do once you have them.

 

[Dark Carnage]

B) They chose to sleep around without ever forming a real attachment and come to realize years after they began that they have no real aspirations to do anything with their life outside of going to the next club scene or generally wasting oxygen.

You make it sound like all people who don't have children are going to fill their lives with meaningless casual sex because they are trying to fill a void left by not having children.

 

[Spade]

You make it sound like all people who don't have children are going to fill their lives with meaningless casual sex because they are trying to fill a void left by not having children.

I said the people who come to me complaining about how life went for them. There are plenty of people who I can call at the touch of a dial right now who will talk my ear off about how being single and being able to do whatever their heart desires is awesome for them and will forever be awesome for them without a child entering the equation. I'm just saying from the one selection. Hence the term 'group'.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

America is over populated.Adopt children,instead of having them.But having children is a raw human instint,to see your genes passed on.Even when its not wanted,or needed.

 

[Symbiotic]

I'll leave my stance at this: I intend to procreate whether you guys like it or not. THE END.

 

[jaguarr]

I don't have anything against those who choose not to have children. In a lot of ways, it's probably for the best.

I think that some parents who are able to have their own children take the process for granted, and they don't understand the undertaking and what it really means to raise a child. My wife can't have children, so imagine her being around her friends who practically shoot them out at will, and then have the gall to complain about their pregnancies and their kids around her. Talk about selfish.

But not having children right away was a wonderful opportunity for us to observe others. And we took it seriously. We watched a rather large selection of our friends and family go through the trails and tribulations of child-rearing and saw all the things that worked and didn't work. We asked questions of couples we knew that had kids that grew up well. So when the time came for us, we had at least a plan of attack.

I never wanted a lot of children, even had we been able. I was happy with one. I am glad that we adopted because I am adopted and I know what it meant to me. The process was long and hard, and I think that every single person about to think about parenting should have to go through it, if for nothing else than to test their committment to having a child.

I think it's a personal decision based on your lifestyle. And I don't think any decision starts out as a bad one when deciding on children as long as it's a responsible one that was a conscious decision. It's what you do once you have them.

Nice post, man.

jag

 

[StrainedEyes]

Honestly, there are enough children out there who have ****ty parents and who get left on the street and passed around foster homes and have horrible childhoods. I think it's only right for some people to NOT have kids (especially anything more than 2) and to take in the less fortunate children already alive and unhappy.

Why over populate and leave hundreds of poor kids without a real home.

 

[BlackLantern]

as far as filling a void. well i am trying to fill as many voids as i possibly can...someone had to say it

 

[lazur]

LOL only here can you find a large number of people who view having children as 'wrong'. What is 'wrong' with you people?

You point to the EXCEPTIONS as examples for why people shouldn't have kids, and you expect everyone else to just buy into your opinion, everyone else's opinion be damned.

There's nothing wrong with having children in a general sense. Are there people who should NOT have children? Absolutely. But who are you to apply that to EVERYone? Well, obviously you're someone who doesn't have kids and has no remote understanding of what it's like.

And I will say this, regardless of your 'flames' for doing so - if you don't have kids, you can't comment at ALL from the perspective of a parent. You do not understand and you never will until you, too, 'take the plunge'.

I'm out of this silly conversation. Have a great day, haters.

 

[Kritish]

If I had children I couldn’t be posting naked as I drank now could …?

 

[blind_fury]

LOL only here can you find a large number of people who view having children as 'wrong'. What is 'wrong' with you people?

You point to the EXCEPTIONS as examples for why people shouldn't have kids, and you expect everyone else to just buy into your opinion, everyone else's opinion be damned.

There's nothing wrong with having children in a general sense. Are there people who should NOT have children? Absolutely. But who are you to apply that to EVERYone? Well, obviously you're someone who doesn't have kids and has no remote understanding of what it's like.

And I will say this, regardless of your 'flames' for doing so - if you don't have kids, you can't comment at ALL from the perspective of a parent. You do not understand and you never will until you, too, 'take the plunge'.

I'm out of this silly conversation. Have a great day, haters.

Put on the glasses!!!

 

[Addendum]

The only children I like are my younger cousins. When I do spend time with my family, it's fun just to goof around and watch a couple movies or whatever. But the best part is when their parents leave, they leave. If I had a kid, I'd have to take it with me when I left.

So, what it boils down to is, I don't see a benefit for me if I became a father. If that's considered selfish, oh well. I also like the thought that my choice in never becoming a parent could have an effect on the future.

 

[Holly]

if i were President i would pass a law to make all abandoned babies sent to Africa so they can eat them. those people are starving you know? 2 birds 1 stone

Grace '08

 

[Addendum]

Send the unwanted kids to fish for crab in the Bering Sea. I need some more crab legs.

 

[Kritish]

if i were President i would pass a law to make all abandoned babies sent to Africa so they can eat them. those people are starving you know? 2 birds 1 stone

Grace '08

I'd vote for you.

Send the unwanted kids to fish for crab in the Bering Sea. I need some more crab legs.

 

[BlackLantern]

LOL only here can you find a large number of people who view having children as 'wrong'. What is 'wrong' with you people?

You point to the EXCEPTIONS as examples for why people shouldn't have kids, and you expect everyone else to just buy into your opinion, everyone else's opinion be damned.

There's nothing wrong with having children in a general sense. Are there people who should NOT have children? Absolutely. But who are you to apply that to EVERYone? Well, obviously you're someone who doesn't have kids and has no remote understanding of what it's like.

And I will say this, regardless of your 'flames' for doing so - if you don't have kids, you can't comment at ALL from the perspective of a parent. You do not understand and you never will until you, too, 'take the plunge'.

I'm out of this silly conversation. Have a great day, haters.

No one said anything was wrong with it. We are just debating public perception of people that choose to breed and people that don't. and once again certain people think just because they managed to pop out a human that their opinion has more weight than anyone else. i guess the reason he's left the conversation is because his whining crying tax deduction has a full diaper

 

[The Squirrel]

I plan on having atleast 2 kids.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

No one said anything was wrong with it.

I did.

 

[BlackLantern]

and that is why we love Wilhelm

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

No not at all....just wondering what people think about this growing trend of people not wanting to have kids, and that we now have the largest percentage of single people in the US at this point

do you have data on this trend? because last I looked we were beginning another population boom.

And what does being single have to do with having kids? Plenty of people of single people have kids... The institution of marriage may be going in the toilet, but statistics show people still like making babies.