Yes but they are the minority. A loud and extremely irritating minority I grant you.
Nevertheless, parents are the majority of the population and always will be.
It is the default human condition. It is you that have to get used to their children in all their myriad behaviors.
How often do you see people ranting against an entire age group of people other than kids though?
Man, I HATE elderly people. It’s like nails on a chalkboard when I hear some grandma or grandpa whining and screaming about wanting to watch Matlock.
I just hate it when I am at a restaurant and someone over 65 shows up to get the early bird special - the smell of their Depends undergarment ruins my meal.
I can barely restrain the urge to rearend their cars when I see some elderly person driving too slow. Why can’t their children just leave the elderly at home so old people don’t bother the rest of us?
Of course I’m being sarcastic. I understand that not everyone wants kids or wants to be around them. However, I think this article does sum up the kind of childfree person that nobody likes: http://www.salient.org.nz/columns/lol-internet-with-mims-freetards
I think a big part of the problem is that the most visible childfree are the craziest ones. Nobody notices the childfree people who are calmly going about their lives and not making a big deal about other people’s kids. The childfree who are obsessed with ranting about how much they hate children stand out and leave non-childfree folks with a bad impression.
What a load of balls. Nobody’s popping out kids out of altrusim. You had 'em because you wanted 'em. That’s fine. But pretending you’re doing something all noble out of the goodness of your heart is just crap.
I’ve gotta agree with you here. I’m happily childfree and I don’t give a crap one way or another about people’s kids. Do I want to be around kids? Nope, not really. Do I expect kids to never be seen or heard? Nope, I sure don’t.
Your last sentence reminds me of atheists. Most atheists I know are going about their lives and just don’t believe in a deity, but then there are the atheists who want to LET YOU KNOW all about their every thought on the subject.
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. This stupid “I’m doing it for mankind!” shit only makes the people who say it look like lying assholes.
Thank you. That’s what I meant to communicate. You said it better.
Fuck you. Fuck you in the heart with a big rubber dick you self righteous asshole.
Just use the keyword ‘childfree’ or ‘child-free’. People who simply don’t have kids are childless. People who hate children are childfree. One of the most hilariously asinine things I ever read was on the Live Journal childfree community where people were saying that the word, ‘childless’, was insulting because it implied that they were less, as though the standard convention in English of putting ‘less’ to imply the absence of something was targetted directly at them and their dumbass sensibilities.
Without kids humanity ceases. If you have no love for the continuation of humanity then your opinion is completely valueless as far as I am concerned. You don’t want kids? Fine, don’t have them. But the moment it becomes a political/ideological stance that’s when we know you’re just a selfish douchebag that is chronologically advanced child yourself.
Oh yeah, a great thread for finding these hateful bitches is in any thread about the ‘Duggers’.
I’m pretty sure everybody PLANS on keeping a sharp mind as they age. I’ve not met somebody once who said they hoped to become senile and live their final decade in a vegetative state.
I sure hope you’re not wasting your money on health insurance. That would be foolish.
I find children unpleasant to be around. I appreciate efforts by parents to minimize the annoyance caused by their children, and think less of parents who fail to do so. I make no apologies for this.
Jeez, is there any wonder this guy is not terribly fond of kids? Doing that job would turn you into W.C. Fields in short order.
This is a revolutionary statement and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Though let’s not forget the other key reasons for having kids - too lazy to use birth control/birth control failed/everyone in the family expects kids/I am under the delusion that having them will keep our lousy marriage together/I am a pathological case (i.e. “octuplet mom”) etc. etc.
In the back of their minds, though, a surprising number of parents* carry the belief that they are Serving The Needs of Society 
and should be cut a break in nearly all circumstances.
*Hi, Scylla!
“I shall call him … Mini Me”
Correction: people who simply don’t have kids are childless; people who don’t have kids on purpose are childfree; people who hate children are jerks. 
I love kids. I’ve always been good with them, and I’m a sucker for babies. I babysat in college, I’ve watched my friends’ kids, I’ve changed more diapers than most new parents, etc. That said, I have never particularly wanted to have my own, and what I thought was simply ambivalence in my 20s I recognized as full-on “do not want” in my 30s. So I will happily be “Aunt Jenny” to my friends’ children for the rest of my life – but I have an innate distrust/dislike of people who claim to hate children, or who sincerely dislike them.
One of my great frustrations with LiveJournal is that it is impossible to find a “childless by choice” community whose members actually like kids. It’s as though the only valid choices are “love and want kids” or “dislike and don’t want kids.” Where are the rest of the “love but don’t want kids” people??
Heh. I see two major groups of people in this thread completely talking out their asses. Fortunately, they’re both in the minority. Group one is the parents who think the lives of non-parents are empty and meaningless. Group two is the childless who think they know how parents should be raising their children.
FTR, I’m child-free, and happy to be so. I don’t enjoy spending large amounts of time around children, and yes, I’ve even been known to mutter “I hate kids” under my breath when one is annoying me. Of course, I’ve also been known to say “I hate men” and “I hate people” at times, and I clearly don’t mean either of those either.
Actually, I was constantly getting comments from everyone around me about what a great kid Lisa was. I did get some negative comments because I allowed Lisa to use a pacifier until she didn’t need one any more, and because I used a harness contraption on her when she was a toddler, again until she didn’t need one any more. Some babies and toddlers have more of a sucking instinct than others, more than is fulfilled by feeding, so I used a pacifier, and everyone was happy, except those people who wanted to see her face. And just about all toddlers need to be restrained in certain places. For example, when I took her shopping with me, she had the harness on, and she wasn’t able to dart away from me and into something dangerous. The harness had some straps that would keep her securely in a shopping cart or stroller. When I took her to the park or similar area, I allowed her to roam and play freely, because a park is DESIGNED to let kids run and play, unlike, say, a restaurant. Some people disapproved of having her in a harness. Many people, though, thought it was a great idea.
I also strapped her securely into her car seat. Every. Single. Time. Even if it was just a two block trip. She got used to the idea that going someplace in the car meant that she was going to be in that car seat, all belted in. My sister in law, on the other hand, sometimes would belt her kids in, but often wouldn’t bother. So of course, her kids kicked up and screamed when she did try to belt them in. She’d taught them that throwing a hissy fit was the method to get their way, not only in the case of car seats, but in every instance. Guess which kid was able to comply with teachers’ instructions when she went to school, and which kid wasn’t? It’s not that my SIL didn’t try, sometimes, it’s that she wasn’t consistent in trying. My daughter and I had some real matches, but I was the adult, the parent, and I never forgot that.
My daughter has grown up into a responsible adult. She’s successfully launched, has a great career, and is happy in her life. Her dad wishes that she’d get married and start popping out grandkids, but she doesn’t want any kids yet. My SIL’s kids, on the other hand…one is an unmarried mother, who works a variety of shitty jobs. Since she was allowed to have her boyfriends sleep over when she was in high school, I don’t think that anyone was too terribly surprised at this. Her son is under investigation for fraud and theft at his previous job. From what my husband tells me, the kid actually did rip off his employer for several tens of thousands of dollars of equipment. Not surprisingly, the kid (OK, he’s in his 30s, but since he’s a family member in the generation younger than I, he’ll be a kid to me for a while yet) is finding it extremely difficult to land another job that doesn’t involve asking the customer if he’d like to supersize that order.
In other words, it’s not just the non-parents who think that some people have shitty parenting skills. We KNOW what it’s like to be parents, we KNOW what it’s like when our child-rearing theories all go flying out the window, and we KNOW that if you don’t work at being a parent, then you’ll have rotten kids. And rottener adults. Parenting is a constant job, and you can’t take a child into a restaurant and expect him to somehow just know not to stick french fries in his nose. You have to teach him not to. And you have to teach little Suzy not to discuss your family’s religious views with every person, friend or stranger, unless that person has asked about them. This is especially true if Little Suzy has been visiting Crazy Uncle Jack Chick again, and is merrily informing everyone that they are going to Hell if they haven’t accepted Jesus into their hearts.
My point is, yeah, kids don’t have perfect social skills. But they are never going to learn social skills unless Mom or Dad or whoever is raising the little hellions takes the time to teach and reinforce good behavior. Letting kids run around the grocery store, playing and breaking the toys for sale? That doesn’t teach good behavior. Dropping kids off at the toy store while parents go shopping in another mall store? That’s…I’d like to say unbelievable, but alas, I’ve seen it happen often, and heard about it even more often. I see too many kids running around without supervision, in places where this isn’t appropriate. Letting kids run around on a playground, shrieking and showing off is fine. And if I go to a playground or park, I expect to see and hear loud children. If I go to a museum, though, I expect parents to keep their kids off the “look only” exhibits.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect parents to control their kids in a public setting, and to have some consideration for the other people who wish to use that setting. If I go to McDonald’s, and sit out in the play area, I anticipate a noisy atmosphere. If I go to Denny’s, then sure, I expect kids there. However, I don’t want to have a kid plop himself down at my table and announce that he wants some of my cake. (Yeah, this happened. I told him to ask his auntie to buy him cake, if he wanted it. He said that everyone always gave him some of their cake. I told him that I was not everyone, and that he wasn’t getting cake from ME. He went crying to his auntie, who gave me a very cold look. It turned even colder when I finished eating the third of the portion that I’d planned to, and then stopped a busboy so I could deposit the uneaten portion directly into the waste bin. Yeah, I’m a bitch. But I don’t think that bad behavior should be rewarded. The boy in question was at least 10, and possibly as old as 13.)
Lest you think that I’m a total bitch, though, consider this. On occasion, I’ve given random kids a book. I enjoy the Little House books, and sometimes a kid will politely ask me about it when I’m out. If the child seems to be interested in the book, I will offer it. I buy these books used, not to give away, but because I’m frugal and my royalties wouldn’t go to a living author anyway. At any rate, some kids are really excited, especially if they’ve already read a Wilder book and want to read more. The key is, the kid has to be polite and respectful, and I will make allowances for youth in my expectations.
This is a revolutionary statement and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Though let’s not forget the other key reasons for having kids - too lazy to use birth control/birth control failed/everyone in the family expects kids/I am under the delusion that having them will keep our lousy marriage together/I am a pathological case (i.e. “octuplet mom”) etc. etc.
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I knew a woman who was happily married, but had the second child so the first one wouldn’t have to bear the total responsibilty of caring for the parents when they became old and infirm. :rolleyes:
NO. Maybe that is true for some people but not all. I use the word “childfree” because I am not in the class of people who WANT children and can’t have them. It breaks their heart and tears them apart. I don’t want them, so I am childfree. I don’t want people to hear it and think “oh, poor thing” - I want them to know it was a choice.
TroubleAgain is so right. As always there is the excluded middle. Those of us who don’t want to have kids, but do like [some] kids. No one likes every kid. I love my little nieces and nephews but I don’t have any particular fondness for strangers’ kids and who the fuck cares if I don’t.
Fair enough, but I stand by what I said about being able to find kid haters by using the keyword search ‘childfree’. Maybe not everyone who is childfree hates kids but it’s a high enough proportion that you’ll get a relevant hit with minimal search.
Well, it’s our duty to the Party.
I honestly never heard it that way - when I first heard it, I heard it as the class of people I am in. Then suddenly I started having to defend it against people who thought I was a childhater.
When I say I am childless I get looks of pity and downright rude questions. “Why don’t you have kids? Don’t you want them?” I can have kids and don’t want, it seems kind of horrible to equate myself to people with fertility issues.
I am particularly sensitive to it because a really good friend of mine is having these troubles. His wife cries over it. He tries not to show it but I can see it strikes at his masculinity. (It’s his sperm that’s the problem.) He doesn’t talk much about it but I know it’s tearing him up.
We are so far from the same boat that it seems wrong somehow to use the same word.
I couldn’t agree more. Neither side of the debate wants either of these groups speaking for them, I’m sure.