Otherhood: No Matter How Much They Achieve, 'Childless Cat Ladies' Can't Escape Bias

Chief ^ | August 1, 2024 | Meghan Rabbitt

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Excellent post. A little tolerance is welcome.

[SamAdams76]

We used to call these ladies spinsters, which somehow has become a perjorative term.

Would they rather us go back to that terminology?

[Valpal1]

You don’t have to give birth to rear children. Adoption, fostering and caring for the neighborhood waifs are all options.

I’m talking about those who specifically choose to be childfree.

[Antoninus]

Fifty years after their deaths, no one will remember or care about the childless cat ladies.

Meanwhile, those of us from big families continue to remember and revere (and pray for) our ancestors even hundreds of years after their deaths.

Purposeful sterility is a dead end in every respect.

[Antoninus]

Tell that to women who can’t have children..

Just stop. Women who can't have children can adopt. The outcome is the same as for women with natural born children.

What we're talking about here are women who opt to remain childless because they are self-centered and brainwashed into think that children are a burden and a curse.

[Antoninus]

Of all my friends and acquaintances male OR female, (and self) the happiest are single and childless.

Until they turn 65. Then, it's 20 years of declining happiness and misery until they die alone in a nursing home.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Yeah, sure I know plenty of children who abandon their parents

[dead]

I fell asleep somewhere in the third paragraph.

[Antoninus]

Guess Joan of Arc and Queen Elizabeth I of England were “unpatriotic”

Joan of Arc was dead before she reached 20 years old.

Any monarch that doesn't have children creates a succession crisis.

No one is saying that everyone should have children. Those who give up child-rearing as a sacrifice for a higher calling (religious orders, dangerous military service, etc.) should be praised. But that's NOT what we're talking about.

The single cat ladies are nearly all selfish, libertine, and short-sighted. They are not self-sacrificing in any sense. And they have no stake in the future. That is the point.

The fact that there are millions of young women in that brainwashed state -- many of whom are literally mental cases -- should give everyone in society pause.

[Antoninus]

Yeah, sure I know plenty of children who abandon their parents.

Me too. But I also know plenty of children who take care of their parents in their elder years -- including me. A person is truly blessed who can count on their children and grandchildren to care about them as they age.

But if you are purposely childless, you practically guarantee that the last 20 years of your life will be miserable.

[Albion Wilde]

[1Old Pro]

childless cat ladies

Only one thing worse, having Karen as your name.

[NorthMountain]

It’s kind of sad, really.

I know two Karens and one Caren.

None of them are karens.

[MayflowerMadam]

“I also know plenty of children who take care of their parents in their elder years — including me.”

Including me, too, and my siblings. For Mom all the way to age 99-3/4.

“But if you are purposely childless, you practically guarantee that the last 20 years of your life will be miserable.”

I’m purposely childless, not miserable (yet), and am happy to trade those 20 years for the 50+ years of misery my friends and family have endured because of their kids. It could be bad kids, or personal issues that cause gut-wrenching grief, out other things.

Of course, every person and every situation is unique. Bottom line: it’s a crap shoot for everyone.

[JimRed]

If the childless cat lady is good at whatever she chooses to do, and does not shove wokeness in our faces, it’s her right to not be harassed.

[Antoninus]

Bottom line: it’s a crap shoot for everyone.

Nothing is guaranteed in life. That said, you reduce your odds of being miserable by having children. Having children tends to change some selfish people for the better. I speak as one so impacted. My 25 years of marriage have known no misery at all--quite the contrary--and my six children have truly been a blessing.

If one is a stubbornly selfish person, however, one's outcome is likely to be negative whether or not one has children.

[LegendHasIt]

Nearly all my friends and I are 65 or older.

[DoodleBob]

This thread would benefit from some data.

Pew had an article “The Experiences of U.S. Adults Who Don’t Have Children”

Check out the political data waaaaay at the end of the reports for people 18-49, and people 50+….

https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/PST_2024.7.26_adults-without-children_W147-18-49_topline.pdf

https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/PST_2024.7.26_adults-without-children_W147-50_topline.pdf

Now, this is women AND men. But it’s good enough for government work.

Bottom line, the younger crowd skews Dem big time - 15% Repub, 35% Dem - but the 50+ crowd is almost evenly balanced - 30% Repub, 35% Dem.

Youngsters are …well…young. I’m glad nobody documented every stupid thing I’d did or said in the 1980s.

If the data are right - it’s not a vintage analysis, but work with me - it’s likely that many of the youths WILL procreate. Or, ,if they don’t, a big bunch of them will become Republicans

As for the older, childless ones, as a block they aren’t overwhelmingly Dems. Maybe the cat spinster Karens are Dems. But not all childless people 50+ are leftists. Not by a long shot.

[Chode]

100%

[yuleeyahoo]

“no matter how much you achieve at work and in the world”

The only thing the vast majority of them have/will achieve is their own irrelevancy in the grand scheme of things.