Bye-bye baby (Childfree and Loving It)

Telegraph ^ | February 26, 2006 | Julia Llewellyn Smith

[He'sComingBack!]

I'm a first time father at 47. My wife and I adopted our son at birth 8 months ago. BEST thing I've ever done as being a father and getting married (at age 40) made me a better person and less narcissistic. What's with all these articles of late bashing kids & marriage? As another Freeper already remarked, you don't want kids, Fine! Breed yourself out of existence.

[Antoninus]

There are, fortunately, other ways to serve.

Absolutely there are. The priesthood and religious life spring immediately to mind. These callings, along with a military career, are among the most selfless professions an individual could choose which may reasonably preclude the raising of children.

[MaDeuce]

"When people say, "I can't be a good parent" what I hear is "I'm too lazy to put the time in to make myself a good parent.""

---

You don't know me very well, you just don't "make yourself" be someone your not, but thats OK. You have your kids and I'll have none ... no problem. Just don't look down your nose at those who don't want them ... thats the whole jist of my original post.

And please don't put the GOD stuff into the discussion ... its getting old.

[Antoninus]

I'm a first time father at 47. My wife and I adopted our son at birth 8 months ago. BEST thing I've ever done as being a father and getting married (at age 40) made me a better person and less narcissistic.

Good for you! Adoption is a wonderful gift. More people should consider it.

[MaDeuce]

Not everything that makes someone a bad parent can be willed away. Someone with severe bipolar disorder or schizophrenia cannot magically cure themselves, for instance. Are you suggesting that MaDuce has a mental disorder? I wasn't. Awww man, now I have a mental disorder ... I better call a shrink ... IS THERE A SHRINK IN THE HOUSE!!!!. ;o)

[MaDeuce]

"Are you suggesting that MaDuce has a mental disorder? I wasn't.
I wasn't either, I don't even know her."

Ahhhh what a minute folks ... I'm a 41 year old guy.
I gotta put this rumor to rest quick!

MaDuce refers the one of John Brownings greatest contributions to the USA .. the .50 cal. BMG machine gun.

[Antoninus]

You don't know me very well, you just don't "make yourself" be someone your not, but thats OK.

Perhaps you don't, but a lot of other people do. We are not defined as a person by our pathologies or bad behaviors, but rather, to the extent that we are able to overcome and get beyond them.

You have your kids and I'll have none ... no problem. Just don't look down your nose at those who don't want them ... thats the whole jist of my original post.

I'm not "looking down my nose". If that's your perception, you're reading into my post something that's not there.

And please don't put the GOD stuff into the discussion ... its getting old.

Why not? If I don't, I'm doing you a disservice and hiding my motives. That would be pretty lame, wouldn't it? Besides, perhaps if I put the God stuff out there now, God won't have to put it out there for you Himself on the Day of Reckoning.

[SpinnerWebb]

... shouldn't be aloud to have kids ...

MY wife was damned sure loud when she had OUR kids!

[colorado tanker]

Well, at least they're honest. When one of these women does have children, they end up in day care and summer camp. When I see these families on weekends it so obvious the adults can't stand to do family things and the kids act out, screaming for attention.

[RinaseaofDs]

"A high percentage of us now think there's no God and if you add to that there's no need to reproduce then what on earth is it all for? Choosing not to have children gets to the heart of all those big issues.'"

I'm not sure how high the percentage is, but its than line of logic that leads rock stars and the rich to commit suicide.

They realize that, following this logic and their conviction in the lack of a God, that beyond there being no purpose to procreation, there is even less behind eating, sleeping, consuming, fornicating, and then waking up again. Seems the thing to do after a while is to end the waking part.

[bella1]

Well, if you don't want that "God stuff" in the conversation, you must not mind if your spouse commits adultery, because the same God that said "thou shall not" said "be fruitful and multiply".

[shekkian]

You think that people who are disinclined to reproduce should do so anyway to fight your political or religious battles?

Hey, people who don't want children are free to go down that path. I'm not going to force them one way or the other. But it's going to have a significant effect on society in the coming decades, with an ageing population and an increasing Muslim demographic.

One of God's first commandments, which He gave to Adam and Eve, was to be fruitful and multiply. Right now we're seeing less of that in Christian Europe, while the Muslims are breeding at a much higher rate.

[TXBubba]

These are precisely the people who should not have children because they still are children. Leave the child-bearing and rearing to the grown-ups. We'll take care of it.

Yeah, and I bet they don't turn down OUR kids when OUR kids are the ones wiping up their butts in the nursing homes because they don't have anyone left in the world to take care of them. In case they haven't figured it out all the folks their age will still be their age when they all get old.

[ladtx]

Plus, if you don't have kids who's gonna sign you in to the old folks home?

[tx_eggman]

MY wife was damned sure loud when she had OUR kids!

LMAO

[Skip Ripley]

"Marie Provost did not look her best
The days the cops bust into her lonely nest
In the cheap hotel up on Hollywood west
July 29

She'd been lyin' there for two or three weeks
The neighbors said they never heard a squeak
While hungry eyes that could not speak
Said even little doggies have got to eat

Chorus:

She was a winner
That became a doggie's dinner
She never meant that much to me
Whoa oh, poor Marie

Marie Provost was a movie queen
Mysterious angel of the silent screen
And run like the wind the nation's young men steamed
When Marie crossed the silent screen

Whoa she came out west from New York
But when the talkies came Marie just couldn't cope
The public said Marie take a walk
All the way back to New York

Chorus

Those quaalude bombs didn't help her sleep
As her nights grew long and her days grew bleak
It's all downhill once you've passed your peak
Marie got ready for that last big sleep

The cops came in and they looked around
Throwin' up everywhere over what they found
The handiwork of Marie's little dachshund
That hungry little dachshund"

"Marie Provost" by Nick Lowe circa 1978

[Ignatz]

Meanwhile, the ever more extremist Muslims of Britain have five (slightly exaggerated) kids each.

Yeah, but they lose a few to attrition as suicide bombers.

Muslim mother: "I remember Abdul when he was just an infant! *sigh* They blow up so fast...."

[TXBubba]

That is so BAD and so SAD! but I chuckled anyway.

[LWalk18]

I wasn't either, I don't even know her

Ahhhh what a minute folks ... I'm a 41 year old guy. I gotta put this rumor to rest quick!

Sorry, I knew I should have put a question mark there>

[MaDeuce]

"Well, if you don't want that "God stuff" in the conversation, you must not mind if your spouse commits adultery, because the same God that said "thou shall not" said "be fruitful and multiply"."

Aw come-on, as soon as I start seeing GOD thrown around to justify this and that ... your arguments begin to break down. Its like saying the Great Pumpkin wants it.

There is nothing wrong with kids learning about religion ... it gives them a set of core values to build off of ... far better than them having nothing to believe in. But don't use GOD in your arguments as if everyone knows He exists, as if He could be sited like a news story from AP or Fox News.

I'll never forget about the time my 2nd step-father had a run in with a bunch of Jehovah Witnesses when I was 14 or so. He was in WWII and was a scout in a patrol that came upon the Buchenwald death camp. He was there for some time involved in forcing the local German folks to work cleaning up the camp and burying the bodies. He was telling these Witnesses about it in a loud voice with a far off look in his eyes almost in tears and shaking. "... IF YOU EVER SAW THE BODIES, THE PITS AND SMELT THE SMELLS OF THAT DAMN HELL HOLE ... YOU'D KNOW RIGHT THERE AND THEN THAT THERE IS NO GOD!!!" he yelled at them and they just about ran off. I'll take his word for it over the pie-eyed evangelicals.

So ... everytime I hear GOD mentioned to justify a point of view ... I know you've lost the argument. Just like the savages saying allah told me!!!