Posted on 09/19/2024 8:17:33 PM PDT by Morgana
CNN —
In some corners of society, there appears to be a shift in the way people talk about kids.
Every so often, a provocative social media post sets off predictably polarizing discourse about the presence of children in daily life. There was the woman who snarkily suggested that toddlers should be leashed. There was the guy who proudly posed outside of an establishment that declared itself “dog friendly” and “child free,” and the person who defended him by proclaiming that it was “fine and normal to dislike children.”
In certain online communities, people sometimes express these attitudes even more jarringly, using terms such as “crotch goblins” for kids and “breeders” for parents.
These attitudes show up offline, too. The issue of crying babies on planes is a frequent source of conflict, with some passengers glaring, yelling or more recently, locking the offending child in the lavatory to admonish them. And as people who seek to avoid loud or unruly children make known their preferences for childfree restaurants, grocery stores and flights, more businesses are catering to them.
The implication (joking or otherwise) is that children are a nuisance and adults shouldn’t have to endure them if they don’t want to.
The brazenness with which people express this attitude, even if it’s more a meme than anything else, has an effect on parents. Some parents (almost always mothers) are so attuned to the possibility that their child might inconvenience others that they constantly apologize for normal kid behavior. Others pass out ear plugs and candy on flights.
Mariah Maddox, a freelance writer based in Ohio, has yet to fly with her 3-year-old because she can’t predict how he’ll react and doesn’t want to experience judgment from fellow passengers.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
We all know how babies are made so avoid that act and you will be child free.
If you have a critical mass of these kinds of people, you have a dystopian society, acting like miserly, grumpy childless 80 year old uncles who want everything just so, like a world full of Mr. Wilson. (There was actually a Dennis the Menace comic story where the Wilsons were going to move to a retirement community, Mrs. Wilson persuaded George not go through with it.)
As a retired teacher who taught in a low income/free breakfast/lunch district, I can sadly say that lots of people are having children. But, they are having children they can’t take care of, guide, or just refuse to parent. One woman had all 5 of her kids in special Ed. Really depressing.
Children in public places are allowed to behave in ways that would have been unthinkable when I was a child. It’s not the child’s fault it is the parent’s.
You know where I love to see and hear children? In church! I can’t get enough!
Love being child free. Listen to the drama of my nieces and friends and their children and remember the dramas of my grandmother’s sisters coming over to cry about the dramas with their children. I sympathize over every sad story and then go home grateful for peace, quiet and puppies.
Also grateful for all the good people who choose to populate the world and raise good children. Not grateful for the ones who don’t raise good children.
Your own children? A chore for sure and for a long time. The best is when THEY have kids. You can visit and play with them and then when you get tired of it just hand him/her back to mom or dad....
Not me. I adore kids. I promise not Joe them though. I just love interacting verbally with them and watching them smile. I always wistfully, admire their energy. They are joy.
My mother and father come over to the house quite often. They’re grandparents now.
My mother kisses every child. “Well just come here and kiss your grandmummy. Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm! Grandmummy just love her to death!” And my children think that my mother’s the most wonderful person on the face of this earth, and I keep telling my children, “That’s *not* the same woman I grew up with! You are looking at an old person, who’s trying to get into Heaven now.”
-Bill Cosby
This is what a morally & fiscally bankrupt society headed to certain collapse looks like.
My niece is loving being a grandmother. Babysits a lot and comes down with every bug the kids get. I sympathize over the phone.
My grand daughters are 17, 19 and 21. I tell my daughter, “you’re getting YOUR payback for the trouble you were as a teenager!”
Actually, I have more of a problem with teens and adults who, as my wife puts it, should know better, but evidently don’t.
It’s wrong to tar all kids with the same brush. There are good ones, and there are some that are more challenging. Like everyone else, their behavior and moods fluctuate. A couple at my church has a baby that has always been a delightful, happy, little angel, but last Sunday she had an off day.
The straight-up hostile attitudes toward children in this article remind me of an old piece from “The Onion” about a man who had had enough of a small child in a plane: “I Yelled at a Toddler and Called Him a N****r, But Somehow I’m the Bad Guy .”
Americans raise their children to be annoying. Sorry. It’s not like that everywhere.
“(There was actually a Dennis the Menace comic story where the Wilsons were going to move to a retirement community, Mrs. Wilson persuaded George not go through with it.)”
In one of the Dennis the Menace comics I read it was actually Dennis that talked George out of it.
The place had a bunch of rules No this..no this..no this..no this... a very long list. On the way out Dennis tells Mr. Wilson “let’s tell people what this place is really like” and Mr Wilson had some paint and a brush in his car so Dennis painted “NO FUN”
Yes you are correct a lot of them are like Mr Wilson, just grumpy old people in their 20’s and 30’s
I can relate to this. I once asked a flight attendant to move me to a different seat due to a crying baby. Turns out, they won’t do it if it’s your baby!
Thank you for correcting my faulty memory of a comic book I read 48 years ago. I remembered Mrs. Wilson was near tears because the range was “no stooping” and it reminded her of making cookies for Dennis etc.
I’m not annoyed with ALL children. Just badly behaved children, and parents who won’t parent.
The nest resorts in the Caribbean, and Mexico are all children free. Most are 25 and up for men and 21 up for women. Makes for a great adult friendly environment. No need for IDs everyone is an adult. Liquor is included and nudity is not an issue for those going European style. I won’t vacay anywhere F trophies are allowed I very much vote with my wallet. At 600 per night per person I don’t want to even think about a screaming baby or a brat adolescent.
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