# If life is meaningless without children, is it meaningless without grandchildren? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691 "2010-11-14T23:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/21 "2010-11-16T15:45:50Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > A weird take on this topic: My mom says she would be content without grandkids because ‘who would want to have a child in this day and age!’. I think she’s just suffering from ye olde every-generation-after-mine-is-bad syndrome, but it was a weird thing to hear as her reason. I am sorry to say that I agree with her. I would love to be a grandpa, but I have have (half) jokingly told my 25 year old daughter not to have kids. I think your mother is being realistic and I don’t want to hijack this thread, but things are not looking good in the world today. Not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/22 "2010-11-16T19:20:55Z")
Many of us will not have a lasting impact on the society we live in, like Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, etc. Our lives won’t be written down for posterity. Immortality and continued meaningfulness will be in our progeny. So to that extent, not having children makes one’s life only meaningful as it is lived, then it disappears like the ripples in a bowl of water when your finger is removed. I have nine grand kids. ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/23 "2010-11-16T20:28:40Z")
I have one grandkid and he is my reward for surviving his mother. Seriously, I would not be upset if I didn’t have any grandkids. I actively encourage the youngest daughter not to have more, and I’ve told the eldest to only have a kid if she wants one. Helping to raise the grandkid is pretty much putting her off having her own. My mom and stepdad did not need me to have kids to give their lives meaning (step-dad didn’t have any kids of his own). My brother has no children and he gets no stick about it. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/24 "2010-11-16T20:47:24Z")
I’m getting shit from my grandparents who are no longer content with grandkids and want great-grandchildren right away. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/25 "2010-11-17T18:42:06Z")
> [@Loisseau](#): > > Many of us will not have a lasting impact on the society we live in, like Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, etc. Our lives won’t be written down for posterity. Immortality and continued meaningfulness will be in our progeny. So to that extent, not having children makes one’s life only meaningful as it is lived, then it disappears like the ripples in a bowl of water when your finger is removed. > > I have nine grand kids. Ah, but even the childless may have nieces, nephews and other non-relatives that they will have an effect on, even if they’re not Shakespeare. I know I have had teachers who were childless who were nevertheless influential. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/26 "2010-11-17T22:53:43Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > I don’t want to hijack this thread, but things are not looking good in the world today. Not at all. I don’t want to hijack this thread either, but (stepping backwards) Vietnam, the Cold war and missile standoffs, racial segregation, WWII, the Great Depression, WWI… Things ain’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/27 "2010-11-17T23:05:24Z")
The meaning of my life is defined by what **I** do, not what my children or anybody else does. Being a father is a very important part of what I do in my life, but that meaning, that value, isn’t wasted if my kids don’t end up having children of their own. For that matter, meaning and value aren’t determined by posterity either. It would be nice to leave something to the world when I’m gone, but my life is real, here and now, and its reality, its meaning, its value, are not made nothing if their influence is bounded in time and space–as they must be, in fact, for all of us. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/28 "2010-11-17T23:19:30Z")
I better get grandchildren, if I don’t, who will avenge me? Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/29 "2010-11-17T23:41:16Z")
Not for me. I did my duty. I passed on my genes, my love, my knowledge and experience, my ethics and my view of life. What my kids do with all that is up to them. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691/30 "2010-11-18T01:20:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Life has no meaning. It’s merely a by-product of existence. Heady stuff, dude, heady stuff. _:: takes another bong rip ::_ 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-life-is-meaningless-without-children-is-it-meaningless-without-grandchildren/560691.md?page=1)