People who hate children

[Long_Time_First_Time]

@flonks

That pretty much sums up the preferences of our society. Generally we are supposed to cope with children, but not with pets.

In my neck of the woods both screaming kids and barking dogs would be placed in the same basket when it comes to calling the police- disturbing the peace. There are no regulations against dogs barking per se, just about being a nuisance. Same for loud humans. As a matter of fact, I’m wager that calls about loud people are much more frequent than complaints about barking dogs, but I live in a university town.

I’d wager my entire year’s salary that if someone called the police about a screaming child they’d not be blown off exactly because children are valued more in society than animals. I’d wager two year’s salary that if I called the police to complain about the loud party down the street, the police would not tell me to stop bothering them and to suffer because it was people running around making all sorts of noise at 3 a.m. and not a dog barking.

[flonks]

@Long_Time_First_Time

As a matter of fact, I’m wager that calls about loud people are much more frequent than complaints about barking dogs, but I live in a university town.

People, yes. Children, no. We suppose that not-children people, so, adults, are able to control their behavior.

If somebody, ever, calls the police because my baby cries at night, then it’s on. My baby did not chose to cry at night and it’s most definitely not something I provoke, enjoy or control. Not that it every happenend though, people are reasonable where I live.

The same might be said for dogs, of course, but society in general thinks that doggie’s well being is not as important as the night’s sleep of the neighborhood, whereas this can be said for a child.

[drpepper]

@keturah

It is pretty well known that Antinoir is a guy, and a gay guy at that. See how jumping to conclusions can get you caught? Me, too. Mea Culpa.

Just want to add I’ve been around here for a few years and I did not know Antinor is gay, nor did I know his gender. I think I could name exactly one poster her who I know to be gay. I think. I don’t pay a lot of attention to such things.

[thirdwarning]

@curlcoat

What gives you the idea I’m retired?

Well, for one thing, a span of 29 years is hardly the “same generation”. For another, I didn’t say that children were not taken out in public until they were in their tween years. If I remember correctly, the thing I said that you have overreacted to is “seen but not heard”.

As I recall, you said you were past the time when you would need to worry about having children and you said you don’t work. So maybe I jumped a bit when I thought you were retired.

I was always taught that history allows about thirty years per generation. Maybe that’s a bit long. Still, 29 years is plenty to illustrate that the things you talked about were not common during that time. You said you didn’t go to the grocery store until you were 9 and you didn’t go to any kind of restaurant, even cheap or fast-food types, until you were 12. And went on to say that it was standard practice then, that children were “seen and not heard”. So telling you that according to my experience it was nowhere near standard practice is far from overreacting.

And all you’ve done here is argue with my semantics, not my point.

[Antinor01]

@curlcoat

It probably is, it’s just a catchall word. If I were to spend time thinking about it, I’d probably say I don’t hate the actual children because hate implies an emotional connection. Which I don’t have for them. I do hate pretty much everything that comes out of children, because I do have an emotional connection to my own quality of life.

Children seem to be the only thing that is universally forced upon everyone, especially in the last 10-15 years when it became fashionable to take them everywhere. They are used to sell all sorts of things, even things that have nothing to do with children. They have tons of taxes devoted to them and then tons of charities on top of that. The lives of women tend to be valued on whether or not they have reproduced and adults in general tend to be considered lesser - all you have to do is look at a story about some disaster. “Mother of four dies” - nothing else about her at all. “Twelve die, including four children” - the other eight are apparently not worthy of note. People call those who are at all realistic about the way children are all kinds of interesting names. Is it any wonder that those who were not born with the gene to go ga-ga over babies start to feel hate towards children? God forbid we try to do anything to push back.

I can somewhat agree with this. On one hand, kids are by and large at the mercy of whoever is in charge of them. (parent,guardian, etc) In that way of viewing it, noting that ‘mother of 4 dies’ does let you know that the mothers death is leaving behind 4 people that no longer have a mother to raise them. That’s a little different situation than leaving behind an adult such as a spouse. Yes, it is tragic for that adult but they at least will be able to still care for themself.

On the other hand, I too am rather sick of always being reminded to ‘think of the children!’. I know a number of people who’s rationale for voting for Prop 8 in CA was because they believed it meant that ‘gay marriage would be taught in schools’. Watch what you say around kids, buy this crappy candy because my precious wants to play soccer at school. (as an aside, I’ve made a personal policy at work against contributing to fundraisers of any kind. Makes it much easier to just say no to all of them then picking a few)

As I said, I am sympathetic to your viewpoint because I at least partially share it. I have no desire for children and my partner and I sat down and made a deliberate decision not to have any. Can we have a thread for those that hate teenagers? Cause I could really get on board with that one. Damn kids need to pull their pants up and turn down that damn music.

[Sleeps_With_Butterflies]

@keturah

Oh, Isn’t that cute–you have worked all your life to be a stewardess, I mean flight attendent. Maybe I will meet you in the air–however, I doubt you are first class material.

I’ve got news for you, you’re not first class material either. If you need to stoop to make fun of someone’s job to attempt to be funny, you’re pretty much a classless dolt and you’ve demonstrated quite a lot about your character. What other professions bring out your scumbag tendencies?

[thirdwarning]

@curlcoat

It was a saying used to indicate how children should act in public situations, not with their families. I realize this is an odd idea for those who think that children shouldn’t display manners in public.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you could show me where anybody in this thread has said that.

[flonks]

This might be relevant: George Carlin on children

I don’t agree, at all, but he is still very funny…

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@flonks

If somebody, ever, calls the police because my baby cries at night, then it’s on. My baby did not chose to cry at night and it’s most definitely not something I provoke, enjoy or control. Not that it every happenend though, people are reasonable where I live.

The same might be said for dogs, of course, but society in general thinks that doggie’s well being is not as important as the night’s sleep of the neighborhood, whereas this can be said for a child.

If I called the cops because of a crying child, it would be because I was concerned about the wellbeing of the child. I would want to know that there is, indeed, someone in that dwelling who was able to take care of the child. I would be worried that possibly someone had left the child to make a taco run, or the caretaker was very ill, or something like that. I know that sometimes a baby cries for no apparent reason, I’ve spent my own time walking the floor, rubbing my daughter while she cried. But usually crying for pain (and I can generally recognize the difference in cries) doesn’t go on for hours, in my experience, unless there’s something seriously wrong.

[Carol_Stream]

@keturah

They should be taught proper behaviour, and will learn it by being taken to task, right?. Certainly, they will never learn proper behaviour if kept solely at home.

They absolutely should be taught proper behavior at home. The difference between inside voices and outside voices, table manners, not running around the dinner table, etc. The world is not your personal laboratory.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Carol_Stream

The world is not your personal laboratory.

Nor is it your personal clean room.

[Carol_Stream]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

Nor is it your personal clean room.

Oh, I have no illusions about clean. Quiet would be nice, though.

[RickJay]

@starwarsfreek42

Well there are laws against barking dogs, but not against screaming children.

Most cities have generic laws against noise disturbance. In the great majority of cities, you’ll find some sort of law saying that you can’t make noise that disturbs people inside their domiciles. It may get more specific than there but towns will usually have a generci statement to prevent someone from finding a loophole.

My sister actually recently called the police with regards to a screaming kid next door - the screaming happened for hours at a time, several times a day, so it was a serious problem, not normal stuff you’d accept as part of life. The police did indeed come out.

[starwarsfreek42]

@RickJay

Most cities have generic laws against noise disturbance. In the great majority of cities, you’ll find some sort of law saying that you can’t make noise that disturbs people inside their domiciles. It may get more specific than there but towns will usually have a generci statement to prevent someone from finding a loophole.

My sister actually recently called the police with regards to a screaming kid next door - the screaming happened for hours at a time, several times a day, so it was a serious problem, not normal stuff you’d accept as part of life. The police did indeed come out.

I’m sure there is a general noise ordinance of some sort, but most of the noise is related to playing. They aren’t going to get a citation because of their kids playing in their yard, any more than I’ll get a citation for my dog barking at the kids in my driveway in broad daylight. (The ones that were standing out in the intersection playing chicken with cars coming off the highway are another matter.)

[SteveG1]

@starwarsfreek42

My neighbors can call the police because my dog barks at them, but I can’t call the police because their kid screeches. The dogs aren’t breeds that are typically considerd to be vicious, but I understand what you mean. I don’t get preemptively angry when I see a kid–it takes too much energy.

If they are calling the cops because your dogs bark, and yes that’s what dogs do, then these people are jerks. I’m assuming you take good care of them and they don’t bark constantly all night outside.
Some neighbors are just assholes.

[Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco]

@SteveG1

Some neighbors are just assholes.

Or maybe they just want to sleep.

For once.

[Jolly_Roger]

I’m going to try to boil this down to a simple point.

I go to a theater to see a movie in the afternoon. A child is screaming, acting like a monster. Fine. Children do that, I realize that. The parent attempts to quiet the child or removes the child from the theater. Great. Theres a parent taking responisbility for thier kid.

situation 2: I go to a late night showing of a rather gorey movie. A child is present and makes a ruckus. Yes, I’m pissed. The kid is A) Too young to understand the movie anyway and probably frightened by the images and B) What the fuck? why would any parents take a toddler to a 1000 (10 PM) showing of a gory movie? (This is a true experience) My wife played devil’s advocate and said maybe they could not find a babysitter. Well, I played the asshole because in my opinion ***they shouldn’t have gone to the movie then. ***

Another situation: I’m in the PX buyoing some clothes. Momma has her spawn running around uncontrolled. Junior runs around a corner and rams his nose right into my knee. Junior starts squealing and crying. I try to comfort the kid as his momma comes over, though I’m pissed. Because being an adult does not mean I don’t feel pain. (and being old, it really hurt) Plus I’m annoyed. Fortunately Momma is reasonable. She understands that her childs behaviour was out of hand and apologizes to me for it. I buy the kid a hershey bar. Heck, he’s just a kid.

I don’t dislike children as much as I have a bone to pick for people that make stupid ass excuses for their kids acting like mini barbarians. The woman in my second situation acted like a mom. She was attempting to control her child, and apologized to me though it was not necessary for him running into me. The kid was not hurt, just doing the “I’m a child so I’ll scream at the slightest hint of discomfort” thing. Thats why I got the kid a hershey bar. He was obedient to his mother, just full of kid energy.

The first example though…why the fuck would ypou bring you a kid to the late late show of a horror movie? No baby sitter? I don’t give a fuck. you had the kid and part of having a kid is to make sure they don’t annoy the crap out of everyone else around them. I didn’t give birth to the kid/or fuck your wife. And while I might have general human concern for children, the kid is the parents responsibiltiy. “Think of the children” has become an popular meme because of people that figure they can let their kids do anything and we should all just suck it up. Fuck that. If I say I don’t want your kids in my yard, thats it. You either pay my rent/mortgage or suck up the money for the damages. I have just as much right to exist in peace as your kids do to play. You do not have the right to dictate how much crap I am willing to put up with because they are kids in my living space.

Serioulsy do not understand that. When I was kid it was unthinkable. Making too much noise? Running through a neighbors yard when they don’t want you there? We were told NOT to do that by our parents/guardians in my old neighborhood. And every adult on the street had the ability to correct or drag you back to the house or just basically tell on you. We addressed all of them as Mister, Miss, or if they were friends of our parents as “Aunt this” or “Uncle that”.

People without children don’t actualy hatechildren. We just have a problem with parents that let their kids act like little crazy people. Consideration for other is one of things that makes life tolerable.

[starwarsfreek42]

@SteveG1

If they are calling the cops because your dogs bark, and yes that’s what dogs do, then these people are jerks. I’m assuming you take good care of them and they don’t bark constantly all night outside.
Some neighbors are just assholes.

They aren’t outside at night. Yes, the neighbors are just assholes.

@Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco

Or maybe they just want to sleep.

For once.

The dogs sleep inside, with me. It stands to reason that if they barked all night, they’d be keeping me up much moreso than the neighbors. But thanks for assuming, pal.

[curlcoat]

@keturah

To be clear, I do not own a pit bull type dog. Additionally, I have said that I take my kid in (gasp!), public. I never keep him longer than he can handle, I clean up after him (and yes, that includes the floor). He eats foie, duck, asparagus,butternut squash ravioli, ceviche and what ever else I order. He requies no kid menu and if at any time I think he is at the end of his rope my husband gets the check while I take him outside–if we can get outside. Usually the staff wants to keep him there longer.

Way to completely ignore the point of what I said. Of course, most parents can’t resist trying to pretend their kid is perfect any chance they get… Why would I care what you kid eats, or believe what you say about the wait staff?

[curlcoat]

@keturah

Really? I am pretty sure that if you called and said that a child was screaming, some sort of child neglect laws in effect,

Only if you lied. If you say that a child was been screaming at the top of her lungs at the pool party across the street for the past two hours, as happened last summer several times, they aren’t going to come out. And may yell at you for bothering them. Apparently the noise laws apply to dogs barking during the day, but children may scream when they want.