I now understand why you are like you are. I am very sorry for you.
Part of our life how? That they exist on the same planet as us? That I occassionally see one on my way to work? Of course. But I’m not dealing with children on a day to day basis. I don’t happen to have any at the momment. All my friends who have children live out in suburbia so we never see them. There aren’t a lot of kids at my office. I don’t really eat at the sort of family restaurants where people bring there kids. So how are kids part of my life?
I realize that this thread is not representative of all Dopers, and that the Dope is not representative of humanity, but if I had to make one observation based on this thread, it would be that parents today are rude, obnoxious, and given to unwarranted ad hominem attacks.
even sven, I know you’re not a parent, but was that really necessary?
Some people don’t enjoy the company of children. Get the fuck over it.
Yeah, and look how you turned out. :smack:
Well sure, but sometimes words are all we have.
Describing **curlcoat’s **position as “doesn’t enjoy the company of children” is like describing Cruella DeVille as “not enjoying the company of dalmations.”
I guess I missed the post where she said she makes coats out of children.
One would think that it wouldn’t keep one very warm.
Some people don’t enjoy the company of black people, or enjoy the company of Hispanic people, or Jews, or Asians, or old people, or disabled people, or…
So someone who doesn’t like kids is a racist? Interesting “logic” you have there.
Disliking old or disabled people is not “racist” either.
The concept here is irrational prejudice, or bigotry. “Racism” is merely a subset of this - irrational prejudice or bigotry directed towards those of a particular race. It can also be triggered by age (old or, as in this case, young).
the irony - it BURRRRRRNS.
I’ll buy that. The question then becomes whether disliking a subset of people is irrational.
I actually like kids just fine, but they tend to give me a Lambrusco-sized headache within a few minutes. There’s nothing irrational about wanting to avoid that. Calling that a character flaw or living an empty shell of a life? Now THAT’s irrational!
Therefore, hating child-haters is like belonging to the KKK. 
You pay taxes for the schools they attend. You shop at the same time their parents shop with them. You go to the same movie theaters they go to. You support them when their parents can’t. You are part of society and therefore, you have children in your life. Either directly or indirectly (usually both), they are part of all our lives.
Re: “Childless” vs. “child-free” — you’d think those who get worked up about this would pay more attention to the word “child” in the construction. It is, after all, the children that they’re so vehement about. So it becomes apparent that leaving the word inside the construct calls attention to it, adding fuel to the users’ disgust, i.e., “I am child <spit> FREE!” It is also revealing that curlcoat continually calls a child “it” in her posts.
Children are a universal constant, part of what it means to be human. Here is an example of that truism:
When people speak of commonalities, they speak of children. They are part of what it means to be human.
You, personally, may choose not to reproduce. That the rest of human society is not going to suddenly adapt to your point of view. I’ve been amazed for days now that you find this a hard concept to grasp. The fact that you are unable to mention children without remarking on how much they scream immediately brands you as someone with a skewed world-view.
I’m not sure what prompted to to respond here at such a late date; I have been reading this thread along as it unfolded with a great deal of dismay. It’s sadly illuminating to find that such blighted people walk among us.
There are two points here:
First, the strength of any prejudice obviously can vary, from the mild-to-nothing variety to that which causes real problems. There is a range. A person might find on average that Black people are annoying, what with all the rap music and whatnot, and prefer not to be around them, without being a bitter twisted KKK lyncher.
Second, there are of course differences between different types of prejudice. Disliking kids is obviously a different story from racism, as there is no lengthy history of persecution of kids by child-haters etc. which would make kids (or more important their parents) wary of any expression of anti-child prejudice, as many Blacks are wary of even mild expressions of racism. This is one reason people hate to be called racists - it invokes mental images of the KKK lynching people. Many people who may in fact be racists would not self-identify as that sort.
However, it isn’t totally wrong to call it a “character flaw”. If I know someone is a racist, even if they never see a person of the race they dislike and thus their racism has no practical effect, it makes me somewhat question their judgment. Likewise expessions of anti-child prejudice, which is at bottiom based on the same thought process - a generalized mental picture of a whole category of people that is unflattering and not necessarily accurate in any specific instance.
If someone says ‘kids give me a headache and I’d rather not be around them’, that is a wee bit prejudiced - my kid for example rarely screams, cries or carries on, most people find him quite polite and charming, and the worst you can generally expect from him is a lengthy story about airplane adventures or pirates - but it is of the mild-to-nothing variety; a bit questionable; the unspoken assumption or prejudice if you will is that kids act like noisy hellions all the time, much as a very mild racist might imagine that Black people are constantly playing rap music or doing something else bound to be annoying. It is taking the negative characteristics observed concerning some members of the category and applying them to all.
I guess the main difference between the two (racism and anti-child prejudice) is that every has been a child themselves, whereas obviously a person who is White has never been Black. This means that everyone, even those without children, has an opinion on children and child-hood. The thing is, there is a natural human tendency to view one’s own childhood experiences in a non-objective light - which can manifest itself in the belief that ‘of course I was perfectly well behaved at all times …’ compared to ‘…hellions these days’. Parents are of course not immune from this in respect of their own kids.
The day is young.
I sort of assumed her nick refers to the curly hair of young children. 
Yeah, actually it is. It’s no more a character flaw than not liking tuna salad. (“Oh, but you haven’t tried mine!”)
And while every child is a unique individual, they have enough things in common that one may draw some general conclusions. I don’t, usually, like being around infants. Their little shrieks split my ears. Now maybe I’m showing terrible prejudice in assuming that all infants shriek, but experience has shown me that all infants do, in fact, shriek. Maybe your perfect little angel (actually, your boy sounds delightful) is the one baby in the universe that doesn’t. But I’m not betting on it.
Umm, what? I’m another childless (sorry, I am not going to use that weird childfree word, it makes it sound like I’m free of an STD) forced to work extra and am a woman to boot. Do you know how much I’m looking forward to climbing the corporate ladder because my contemporaries will be off having babies, quitting and shirking? My fellow childless and I do raise our eyebrows a bit at having to split Christmas/New Year’s each year but we’re also the two attorneys consistently staffed on high profile cases and have a better resume than our Chief Counsel vis-a-vis interesting workload and assignments. This point has not been lost on our other co-workers and they’re usually brushed off with “Well, A and M are here more than you are.” And this is with the Feds, who rarely recognise anyone with talent. I can’t wait to lateral out to the private sector.
Your being passed over for promotions because you think they’re punishing you for “maybe” having kids in the future is bullshit, IMO.
Infants don’t usually tell stories about airplanes and pirates (if they did, that would be spectacular). 
My kid is three and a quarter, and so not an “infant”.
Certainly you are wrong if you think infants shriek all the time. Mostly, they sleep, feed, and coo happily - but then, we had an easy baby. He “shrieked” very rarely - if he was very tired, or wet and not changed, or hungry and not fed. Only extremely colicy babies shriek regularly. So your “experience” is simply in error - the generalization you thought correct is in fact wrong. You could go hours with some babies and never hear a yell; others cry continually - look up “colic”, which can indeed be trying but is hardly the universal norm: Baby colic - Wikipedia
I do think that insisting on a negative portrait of a whole class of humans is a bit of a “flaw”, particularly where it is in error. It is like insisting on ignorance.