Do you like small children?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I love the idea of kids, but in reality, I have a selfish type of personality. I like to be left alone a lot, I love peace and quiet, and I love my free time. Kids really cut into that. I have two kids of my own, and as I already stated in the pit thread, they can really get on your nerves. But now that they’re a bit older, I love em to death (not that I didn’t before, it was just a different dynamic). My kids are constantly surprising me in their development, and aren’t the pure balls of Id they where when they were super little.

Other’s people’s kids seem compelled to me. They love to crawl all over me and we tease each other, because I somehow connect with their humor. I’ve always been like that, and I’ve never really grew up, so I’m a kid magnet, much to my dismay sometimes. It was okay when I was in my 20s, but now that I’m in my mid-30s, good god are they exhausting. But they can be fun to mess with their fragile little minds. I also talk to them like they’re adults, they seem to love that.

All that said, your own kids will always be easier to deal with than someone else’s. You love them unconditionally. And you eventually understand how they tick, what sets them off, and when they’re just being dramatic or attention whoring. Other people’s kids, not so much. Especially they truly ADD, rambunctious ones. Oy vey. Lock me in the closet until they go away.

In the end, I recommend having kids. Even if you think it’s not for you, or it’s not the right time (it never is). It’s a part of life unlike anything else. One day, and before you know it, they’re going to be adults, and I look forward to those days more than anything.

22

I’ve always loved kids of just about any age properly cooked.
:smiley:

Kidding, I’ve always been good around kids and they seem to respond to me. The taser seems to help. ( :slight_smile: )

23

This.

Though for some reason I relate well to teenagers (I’m 40). My mom posits the theory that it’s because I was such a god-awful teen myself. She still claims to hold a grudge that just about the time I was starting to turn human again, I left town for college.

24

I love kids, especially mine. They add a sense of wonder, and innocence, and possibility to a sad, jaded, miserable world. The thought of a world without their smiles, and sticky hands, and snotty noses, and goofy singing, and sweet insanity makes me feel dpressed and empty; it’ not a world I’d ever want to live in. Kids are Technicolor in a black & white existence.

We didn’t have our son until we were almost 40, and up until he arrived, I couldn’t have cared one way or the other about having any curtain-climbers, rugrats and/or yard apes of my own. Unlike some of these idiots (yeah, I’m looking in your direction, shithead) who profess to ‘hate’ children, I kind of thought they were interesting, entertaining, occasionally a lot of fun but alternately annoying and exhausting; great for some of my friends, but not something that really interested me.

My son’s birth opened my eyes to a whole new world that I never knew existed. The instant that I looked into my boy’s big, Steve McQueen-blue eyes, I realized that all of my self absorption and seemingly sincere dedication to art, literature, culture, love, sex, women, politics, drugs, booze and a hundred other distractions were all total bullshit; mere hobbies at best. This tiny, angry little guy in my arms was the real thing; something bigger and more important than anything in my experience.

He’s 5 years old now, and absolutely the coolest, funniest, sweetest person I know. Even when he misbehaves or annoys the living Christ out of me I can’t stay mad at him. He’s my best friend in the world. He’s a beautiful soul, and some day he’s going to be a helluva’ good man.

25

No one held a religion to my head and told me we had to have our kids. I earnestly hope that most people that have kids actually want them. And if they don’t, they should choose not to get pregnant, failing that, not bring the pregnancy to term, or if that’s not their way, then put the kid up for adoption.

26

Yes, I like kids. I spent some time working in a pediatrician’s office. My favorite age group is when kids go through that stage around 4 or 5 where they always say funny things.
I don’t really hold it against kids even when they act bratty - I was a very high-spirited child myself, so what goes around comes around. :slight_smile:
Bad behavior by teenagers annoys me a lot more than a “free spirited” little kid.

27

This. I own a toy store, so this is a good thing. My hubby and I are childless by choice, though… I prefer to enjoy them at the store and then go home to the quiet.

28

I like small children - talking to them is like talking to someone who is extremely drunk and/or stoned, and consequently they are quite easy to amuse.

Unfortunately, I do not like babies. At. All.

29

They’re OK-to-good. I like them quite a bit once they’re old enough to talk. I find that often kids have interesting things to say. Under the age of speech, well…I was rather entranced with my own, and enjoy being around other people’s in small doses.

30

I don’t disagree, but I also think that lots of people have kids for the same reason that lots of people get married. It’s simply The Done Thing.

31

I love the ages from 3 to about 8. At that age they are full of laughter and fun. They are unbelievably sweet and loving.

I don’t like them too much under that age because they are so needy. I especially dislike the ages from 9 months to 1.5 years. Then they are fully mobile but have zero sense, so they are always on the verge of killing themselves. The constant vigilance of that age wears me out.

Over about age 9 they start getting snotty. Their know-it-all attitude wears on my nerves.

But that magical 3 to 8 age is great!

autz (mom to kids aged 5, 7, 9 and 11)

32

Kids are entertaining. Sometimes on purpose.

33

No. I do not like children.

I was a child once. Looking back, I was quite a jerk. Mostly I was well-mannered around adults, but I was still a jerk. It took many years to get to where I am. I wouldn’t want to have to deal with myself as a child. I do not like children.

34

I love kids, have always loved kids, and growing up, I was the neighborhood baby-sitter (in the 7th and 8th grades, I pulled down more baby-sitting every week in one summer than some of the high school kids did in their part-time jobs. I had parents calling me to schedule time weeks in advance because they knew they’d be out of luck otherwise.). I have always adored kids. I never understood why anyone wouldn’t like babies or toddlers or kids.

And then I had one of my own. (Who is now 2 1/2, and the Most Perfect Child Ever[sup]tm[/sup], and I dare anyone to tell me otherwise.

:stuck_out_tongue:

And obviously, I adore him and would have six more just like him if I could, but now I realize why some people don’t like kids much. Especially toddlers and preschoolers. They are obnoxious as hell sometimes. I find that I have a lot LESS patience for the screaming five-year-old in Target who has spent 20 minutes screaming “I WANT THAT TOY NOW, DADDY! GET IT FOR ME! GEEEEEEEEEET IT!” than I did 3 years ago. Because I get to listen to that screaming at home every so often, and goddammit, it’s annoying there from a kid I LOVE.

I think liking little kids is kind of like liking anything else. If you do, you may not like them as much as Sally Perfect across the street, who bakes cookies for the neighborhood kids, or you may not hate them as much as someone like my girlfriend, who would bake them cookies and probably slip some Xanax in them to get them to shut up once in awhile. (I kid. Sort of.). But she likes my kid (and he LOVES her - so that helps.).

I figure, as long as no one’s calling my kid a fucking asshole to his face (and believe me, I have yelled some choice words when he’s decided he’s up for the day at 5 AM, like he did yesterday. Not to him, or within his earshot, but I’ll admit to saying them), they aren’t required to treat him with any more or less respect than they would treat any other human being. And that’s more about common courtesy than anything else. If you wouldn’t slam a door in the face of a stranger, don’t slam it in the face of my kid.

35

I like little kids. The times I have been in retail I have always made it a point to address them in the store. It gave the kids something to look forward to each trip, (Hey! That grownup actually noticed I exist!), while letting the parents know that they were not going to be considered a problem by the staff. If a kid was having a whiny day, I would stop by and ask if they had gone to the office and gotten a “Fussing Permit” and that they were not allowed to fuss in that store. (The point was not to overawe them with power–which it really did not do–but simply to break their concentration on the object of their fixation. If a kid kept on fussing, I backed away rather than get into a confrontation. But it worked often enough that most of the parents appreciated the effort.)

A kid who is being destructive or who is screaming at the top of their lungs or smashing another kid with a toy needs to be reined in, but I find the odd things that intrerest them and the weird ideas they take from the world around them to be fascinating. I will admit that I find kids who are incapable of talking below 95 dB irritating. I have a perfectly nice niece who spent an inordinate amount of time shrieking both her approval and her diasapproval of the world around her at age 2, (and, again, at ages 14 - 16), but she never actually harmed me and with a bit of teeth grating, we got past those stages.

36

Kids can really be a pain in the ass, but it’s the parents that I hold responsible for that sort of behavior. I actively dislike parents who don’t (or won’t) teach limits to their children, regardless of the age. Some behavior is just unacceptable, whether one is 2 or 20. For a parent to just grin sheepishly and shrug when their child is running wild really brings my blood to a boil. If it’s a relative, I take my own action. If not, then I just remove myself. My kids were taught to be respectful and to behave in public, so it’s not impossible unless there is a behavioral disorder. Without getting into the whole ADDHTSQUCXZ alphabet soup debate, there is entirely too much of this sort of cop-out to bad parenting these days.

37

Gee. I expected a post from a poster named Chefguy to discuss the proper seasonings for small children.

38

Like veal or lamb, they require very little seasoning. Just enjoy the tender fatty goodness.

39

I’m not a big fan of infants or toddlers, but kids who are between 3/4-10 are a great deal of fun to be around.

40

What does it say about ‘great minds’ that I came in here to say “Yes, but I couldn’t eat a whole one” and there are already at least two kids-as-food jokes.

I adore small kids. I suspect it’s easier to adore them if you don’t have to spend a lot of time with them :smiley: