Love is ... life without the pitter-patter of tiny feet (Angry Feminist alert!)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 1/2/2 | Rachel Roberts

[cake_crumb]

It's rational to wish liberalism destroyed so rational hatred can go as far as you say

Wishing something destroyed doesn't mean you hate it. What I said was that a passionate wish for distruction is a component of all hatred. There's a difference. I wish bin Laden destroyed, but I don't hate him. I don't feel that passionate about him. Killing him to me would be no different than killing a fly. I don't hate the fly. I just kill it. Osama hates the West, and is passionately bent on it's distruction.

I have an idea: how about if we just agree to disagree on the psycholocical/pathological definition of hatred?

"Though most of those kids don't like hanging out with their peers and prefer the company of adults, kind of like how I was as a kid..."

I was that way too, and so were my kids.

I just think that some of the really nosey and pushy reaction to your declarations that you don't have kids because you "hate" them has something to do with your choice of word.

I'm not dissing your decision not to have kids. I'm thinking that you might be scaring people when you say you "hate" them.

[discostu]

Bill Cosby always said you're not really a parent until you have more than one kid. Parenting, as he said, involves ending fights that revolve around the phrase "stop touching me". Being an only child I'm not 100% sure I agree with him (certainly one of the things that keeps me away from parenthood is knowing what a hellion I was, my mom raised me with a lot of discipline but I had a lot of energy and we all know about idle hands), but I always like that routine anyway.

[ArrogantBustard]

so if you try to blame us you're wrong.

Bollocks. It "started" for me, anyway, by hearing coworkers ranting unprovoked about how horrid children are, and how they (the coworkers) didn't understand how anyone could let snotty-nosed, poopy little brats mess up their perfect little yuppie lives. It's probably best that these juvenile, immature, small minded creeps don't reproduce, though entirely too many of them resort to abortion to ensure that they aren't inconvenienced. Still, it's sad that otherwise intelligent people think and behave this way. Maybe you're not like my ex-coworkers. I hope not. Still, it's really easy to decide you don't want children at age 25. It's awfully difficult to do anything about it if you decide you do want them at age 50.

AB

Go ahead and call me an arrogant b@stard if you like. I'm used to it.

[PLOM...NOT!]

Discostu,
I respect your decision not to have kids, and I would never ridicule you for it.
What really gets me though, is when some who make that decision, like the author of this piece, make nasty generalizations about children and having them. Children are gifts from God, and if people treated them that way, and raised them with that knowledge, like He intended it to be done, there would be less unhappiness in this world. The author clearly has no relationship with our Creator. If that relationship is working, then lifes' relationships generally fall in line.

[cake_crumb]

"It's probably best that these juvenile, immature, small minded creeps don't reproduce, though entirely too many of them resort to abortion to ensure that they aren't inconvenienced."

Right. If they feel that strongly about it, they should have themselves "fixed". I didn't want any more than three.
Now my tubes are tied to help ensure that.

[MamaB]

Is her "partner" a male? Just curious!!! MamaB

[Pistias]

If she retains her idiocy indefinitely, she should definitely decline producing progeny and spreading stupidity.

[Pistias]

You have a point--the decision is a private one. But people react so strongly, I think, because even the majority of the people who don't want kids can recognize that it's something of a flaw in themselves...when you come down to it, things in this world seem to strike something of a balance when the natural laws are not broken--high cost yields great reward. Maybe your friends and folks just care too much about you to say nothing, yet don't have the restraint to say it tactfully. Nobody's perfect, I guess.

[chimera]

Well, I counted about 16 in-context uses of some form of the personal pronoun in this article. Except for one of Clinton's speech's or maybe one of his whines, that might be a record for a short article. We can see what this author is about: me, myself, and I.

[abandon]

The author clearly has no relationship with our Creator.

Oh, I don't know about that. Not everyone should have kids, even, I would think, not everyone who does have a relationship with the creator.

[Skip Ripley]

As a 40 year-old first time father of an 6 week-old daughter, I salute you.

You have perfectly summed what the last 6 weeks have taught me

[Stone Mountain]

She seems to be a pretty selfish person, better that she doesn't have kids

She may be selfish, but I don't see that being related to her wanting to have kids or not. After all, what unselfish reasons are there that people are using to justify having kids?

[Stone Mountain]

She seems to be a pretty selfish person, better that she doesn't have kids

She may be selfish, but I don't see that being related to her wanting to have kids or not. After all, what unselfish reasons are there that people are using to justify having kids?

[PaulKersey]

>After all, what unselfish reasons are there that people are using to justify having kids?

Having children doesn't require "justification". It's in the genes, of normal people.

[Stone Mountain]

But people react so strongly, I think, because even the majority of the people who don't want kids can recognize that it's something of a flaw in themselves..

Excuse me? My not wanting to have kids is a flaw? I don't consider myself flawed, nor do my child free friends. I am proud to be a loved uncle, and am happy to help out me friends with children when I can. I don't think they consider me flawed either. How am I flawed because I don't want children of my own?

[abandon]

Having children doesn't require "justification". It's in the genes, of normal people.

If it's instinctual, then there's no more reason to praise it than there is to praise a beaver for building a dam. It's just something they're programmed to do and, in a sense, they have no choice in the matter.

[Freakazoid]

A day without a big juicy rationalization is like a day without sunshine!

[Stone Mountain]

After all, what unselfish reasons are there that people are using to justify having kids?

Having children doesn't require "justification". It's in the genes, of normal people.

Perhaps I mistated myself. I certainly didn't mean to imply that having children requires a justification. My point was that calling people who decide not to have children "selfish" doesn't make that much sense to me. When I hear peoples' reasons for wanting to have kids, they all seem pretty selfish to me. Not that there's anything wrong with looking out for yourself first - I just don't understand how deciding to be child free is viewed primarily as a selfish decision, while having children isn't.

[arm958]

I agree. I was going to post a link to this on the thread about Buchanan's book, but "the powers that be annoying" have deleted it.

This concerns me a great deal. What happened to the "Free" in Free Republic? If we can't even discuss Buchanan's book on a conservative, freedom oriented website, then perhaps his premise will come to pass rather soon.