I was in an argument some time ago, about having kids etc. People saying to me “When you have kids”, “You should have kids”.
Who said we should exist in the first place? I don’t want to bring kids to this cruel horrible world full of lies and slavery…
Why should we constantly be reproducing? Why does it matter? We all have an expiration date and we suffer until this day comes.
Let me know about your opinions on this
I guess it depends on whether you think we’re good for the world/universe or not. I err to the side of not on account of so many people being small-minded, arrogant f***wits who believe (even if only at a subconscious level) that everything is here just for people like them to make as much from as possible. That said I believe (with precious little objective evidence) humanity has the potential to be much, much better than it objectively is and I’d like us to hopefully learn from our mistakes, colonise other worlds and secure a future so that one day we might meet it. Also not keep all our eggs in one basket (the Earth).
UK Atheist
It’s a personal choice, and I also have chosen not to have children, I do believe that if someone has a child they ought to dedicate their entire lives to helping them.
Some people don’t respect the ability of choice on this topic. So they try telling you things like “Don’t you want grandkids?”. No, some people don’t
It’s peer pressure and group think. It’s an animalistic mental mechanism of mirroring others to make them feel comfortable with us as part of a tribe. Animals that don’t act according to herd mentality are ostracized and punished. At least that is what I chalk it up to. I can’t say I have ever really felt the pressure to procreate. Then again choosing to be a blue collar social outcast no one really expects much of you. Really seems to factor into the regional social spectrum you come from on this grain of sand whirling through an infinite blender of chaotic cosmic energy.
I chose to have and raise kids. Two, to whom I gave birth, and two I adopted. I (repeat) CHOSE to do this because I wanted to participate in the development of fellow human beings. That being said, one doesn’t have to procreate to do so. I know a lot of folks who have chosen not to have or raise kids and they are, even into their eighties, quite satisfied with their decision. Folks who chide them for that decision can fuck right off.
I agree that we all “have an expiration date” as you’ve said. I disagree, however, that the world is a cruel, horrible place. I quite like being alive! That’s not to say my life has always been a bowl of cherries. Like anyone else, I’ve endured my share of horrors. However, I survived them and in doing so, I got/get to enjoy all the things that make up the other end of the spectrum.
Indeed, but if I can emphasise how I feel about their opinion on my choice here, they can respect it’s my choice, or fuck right off, I’m pretty laid back about which one they go with.
Ironically I have grandchildren, though I don’t see as much of them now, since my ex wife’s egregiously duplicitous and avaricious divorce, but either way, what one wants and what one feels is the best choice is again a personal decision, I would explain that to them, and then if they don’t respect that I would direct them to the two options above.
I have no idea why people feel they have the right to comment, let alone interfere, but I suspect it’s a lack of empathy on their part, an inability to see that not everybody need make the same choices they do, or hold the same beliefs and worldview they do.
Yes that seems a plausible explanation actually, kudos. Another of those characteristics that would have added a survival benefit while we were involving in small groups, but is largely redundant in post industrialised 21st century societies, and our exponentially increasing population competing for finite resources. Religions and their dogma don’t help either.
I am inclined to agree, and it’s easy to explain such behaviour in an evolutionary context where having as many children as possible would have been vital to the survival of small groups. Like religions, this is now largely redundant in post industrialised societies.
A laudable choice, and as with mine not to have children, it is yours to make.
My sentiments precisely.
I think “can be” would be a better more accurate observation, but in terms of the choices we make it need not be made any worse than circumstances dictate.
Exactly, there is a lot to be said in life’s simple pleasures, and if my experience of being involved with the grandchildren is any yardstick, raising children can be one the best if that is a choice one makes.
I agree 100%. I will add, children and a lifestyle with children should be planned. Hence, I am single and childless. As for bringing a child into the world… Life is what you make it. I’ve seen life’s horrors. I am an ape after all, and we are descendants of apes. Our genes carry with them the vulgarities of our animistic pasts. I don’t call it evil, I call it human nature. Humans have always done the things humans do. And we have always tried to pull ourselves up from it. I’ve had a great life. I am happy to be alive and happy to have lived. I fully accept that this life is a process and not a thing. It has a beginning and an end. I have been holding on for the ride. I was aware of that from my early teens. (It probably had something to do with catching the tail end of the 60s and early 70s and all that transcendental shit.) I just listened to Puff the Magic Dragon one too many times, Or was it the Magical Mystery Tour? It could have been Donovan’s Electrical Banana, The Hurdy Gurdy Man. What I remember of those days is this, “First there is a mountain then there is no mountain then there is.”
With or without kids, if you are not enjoying your life it is because you have not yet learned you are responsible for your own happiness. You bring happiness to the world. You don’t get it from the world.
The world can be a fucked up place, and life has never been fair. My older sister died at the age of 64(my age now) in 2020 of a massive infection. She and my brother-in-law raised 2 kids like we did, and I know that they wanted grandchildren, but they never got any.
Neither one of their kids will ever have children of their own for different reasons, and now her husband is living by himself down in Arizona without any family near him.
My sister was great with our grandkids, and she would have been a great grandmother, but she never got the chance.
We stopped having kids after our 2 were born, and my youngest sister chose to not have kids, which is fine, to each their own. There are already enough people on this planet.
Precisely, I think it is actually a hinderance to society at this point. It stifles a lot of creatives, free thinkers, and other nonconformists who could otherwise focus on passions or ideas that might possibly change the world. I often reflect on if I, myself, would have become the electromechanical madman I am today if I had conformed to the idea of having children. Conformity of this kind in my opinion is hindering much of society. Although I certainly applaud those that chose to have children, especially those that adopt.
Biologically speaking, it seems plausible that a population that is both prosperous and secure, allowing individuals the luxury of pondering their navels and existence and the intricacies of the world around them, would choose to have a smaller number of offspring. We are after all, not struggling for survival of the species any longer. The species seemed to be doing just fine. Despite wars, diseases, deaths, recourse depletion, and the rest, the impact remains evident. We are thriving. 10 Billion by 2525.
Humans are infestations, they are apart of the insect world and can evolve just like insects.
Let me adjust my cocoon before offering to bitch-slap you upside the solt–anus.
They’re not a part (2 words genius) of the insect world, humans are mammals ffs. They’re definitely part of the animal world though.
No, they absolutely have not evolved in the same way insects have…
How long is this clown going to torture us, with his badly spelled inane verbiage?
I am not an insect. Nor am I part of an infestation. How dare you call me that! You don’t know me. You, however, are certainly making yourself known to the posters here. I, for one, am not a fan so far.
Well said sending you My sincere heartfelt joy and sadness and strength you have shown in your inner heart…
I say from within my Elohim potential they do humanity I mean.