Precisely, thank you.
This is me, too. I’m sure I will love my own kids, but while I don’t have them, I think they’re fine to be round for limited periods. On the other hand, I don’t actively seek out situations to be around kids (that sounds odd, but you know what I mean) - I can kind of take them or leave them, really.
Straight female; I don’t drool over kids, don’t go out of my way to be with them, and dislike them in groups, but I’m good with them and I generally enjoy being with kids so long as there’s few of them and there aren’t other people interfering. In a recent train trip, a little girl sat beside me after asking for and obtaining my permission; I helped her pull down the tray and, as she colored in her book, she explained the pictures in it while I made appropriate interested noises. At one point the mother realized she was missing her eldest and almost yanked the girl away with a “stop bothering the lady”… I did have a problem there, but it was with the mother.
No you aren’t, not all parents love their children.
Bi male here. I like being around some kids, just like I like being around some people. I don’t have any of my own, and I can get awkward about being left responsible for small, unpredictable people. I tend to think they’ll gang up on me, even if there’s only one of them.
Somebody forgot to tell Andrea Yates.
But that would have left posters with no opportunity to call me a chump without violating board rules. 
Straight female here. I LOVE kids, which is fortunate because I’ve worked with a lot of them. Of course there’s brats that I can’t stand, but kids in general are cute and funny and aching for attention and love. Honestly, I find the biggest problem with kids is BAD PARENTS.
I think my favorite age is approximately 8-11, when they’re beginning to comprehend the world around them but they’re still cute little kids rather than surly preteens. But toddlers are also fun – I remember when I worked at a preschool, they’d fight over who got to sweep with the broom! Can you imagine wanting to sweep the floor that badly? But they really, really, really wanted to help out.
One of my most touching memories involves quite small children, aged about 3-4. I was working in Baltimore at a job that left me crying every single day, it was so awful. I was sitting on a curb, crying my eyes out. A lady walked by with her two twin sons. She gave me this sort of wary, disgusted glare, but the little boys came running up to me, saying, “Are you all right? Why are you crying?”
Their completely selfless concern made me cry harder, even as I was trying to stop and tell them, “I’m okay, babies, I’m okay.” I always remember that when people talk about how little kids don’t have souls or consciences or whatever.
Straight male. Kids are great fun …as long as they go home with someone else.
This is what I wanted to say. I think of children as ‘‘other people.’’ I’ve never particularly understood when public health officials or people freak out about the safety of ‘‘the children!’’ I understand children are more vulnerable and have unique needs, but I think adults can be vulnerable and suffer too, and I don’t tend to differentiate in my empathy and concern between the two. (That is to say, I tend to have a lot of empathy for both children and adults.) Moreover, children are incredibly resilient and at times rather astute, so I don’t worry about them too much.
Because a lot of young children tend to be loud, interruptive and oblivious to the needs of others (which is perfectly normal and healthy for a young child), I generally prefer not to be around them. Because adolescents tend to be very direct about expressing their personalities, emotions and opinions, I generally really enjoy to be around them.
There are children in my life – SIL was 12 when I first met her – that I have become extremely attached to and protective of. It sounds cheesy, but I would die for her without hesitation. Her brother feels the same way. I never felt that way about a child until she came into my life, so I guess I understand where the protective feeling comes from. In fact it was my crazy levels of love for her that made me realize I was capable of the devotion necessary for parenting. Up until that point I didn’t know what unconditional love was.
I’ve been thinking about my response, and I wanted to add that one thing I like about kids is that they seem to be a lot more appreciative of total silliness than adults are.
For example, I was helping my four-year-old cousin put on her shoes, and I said, ‘‘Do you know that shoes have tongues?’’ And I grabbed her shoe and ‘‘attacked’’ her with it, making big ‘‘Sluuuurp! Sluuuuurp!’’ sounds as the shoe’s tongue licked her. She loved it. Absolutely loved it.
Whereas, when I do stuff like that around other grown-ups, they just look at me funny.
So kids are awesome in that way. Definitely a tick in the ‘‘pros’’ column.
Same. Don’t have any of my own and never wanted any. However, when my wife and I met her kids were grown and had their own kids so somehow I still managed to become a grandfather. I’ve gotten used to being around kids and neither hate or love it. If tomorrow I was told I would never or rarely see them, it wouldn’t bother me, though it would crush my wife.
This is kind of weird poll.
I answered … straight male, love kids.
But it’s not like I go out of my way to hang out with kids because I just love it so much. It’s just happens that I get along with kids. And it doesn’t bother me in the least when I time spend with them … whoever they are. But the poll options are so black and white it almost feels like a comedy routine:
I love kids. I mean, I don’t *love *kids, but you know, I love kids.
I picked “okay with kids of my own” even though I don’t have any because I didn’t see the option for liking a limited number of kids-like your friends’ kids or your nieces and nephews.
I definitely don’t hate them. But at least in the near future I am avoiding workplaces that tout a “family friendly” or work life balanced workplace. To me that usually translates as the singletons or no-kid having people do more work or pick up the crappy shedules with no real added promotion or pay potential for doing so. I’ve worked in that type of an org (and haven’t seen my family around Christmas for several years as a result because I was covering) and I fled because I was tired of the lack of incentives. These days I’m eyeing industries that require everyone to put in the hours from the very beginning and I have to say that it feels less frustrating to know that everyone will be made to work hard and work the hours rather than giving preference on things like having kids.
Yup. TBH, for me, there’s nothing not to like.
I don’t care about people not wanting to be around kids, of course, unless they have kids/stepkids of their own, in which case they really need to adapt.
But few people ever say ‘I hate adults.’ Some people do say ‘I hate kids.’
I agree with 'mika, here. Some kids I love, some kids I hate, some I can take-em-or-leave-em.
Yanno, kids each have their own personalities. It’d be impossible to love all of them or hate all of them. IMO.
As a broad generalization, I find children to be better than average human company. I like the introverted observant ones the best.
It’s a lifelong phenomenon. I liked little babies when I was a small child, liked younger children when I was an older child, etc.
I have never been a fan of children, I don’t really have the patience for them. One of the odd things about me however, is that I have a big toys-for-tots drive every year.
I love babies. I love kids. I love teenagers.
All the different stages are so fascinating. I think I could work with each step and thoroughly enjoy.
What I don’t like are how parents handle their children.
parents are the problem, not the kids.
The kids know exactly what they are doing.
I chose Straight female here. I love being around my own kids, but few or no others because it fit best.
I don’t ever want to be in charge of a group of kids. I don’t even want to be around a large group of kids.
I totally enjoy being around certain of my friends kids, mostly the ones that can carry a conversation and actually think.