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What's the weirdest argument you've heard about my you should have children?

Just wonderin'....I've heard lots in my 28 years of marriage!

I think the weirdest and most selfish argument that I have ever heard was, "Who's gonna take care of you when you get old?" Can you believe that? As if it's fair to conceive a child just to be your nurse when you get old?

Because of our decision to remain childless we have been able to retire early and set up a future where if we need to be taken care of, we'll be responsible for that ourselves. It's as if that is a foreign concept. Or do you think it's just grasping at straws to scare us into having children?

Sometimes I think people with kids just want everyone to suffer equally :o) and are a little jealous of childless couples. Just me, or have you felt that too?

I think it would be interesting to hear what people have used to try to motivate/intimidate/scare you guys into having children!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on September 4, 2010 at 3:53pm

With people like you not having babies minorities will over populate us and take over!"

Wow, someone actually had the hate-bile to say that upfront without disguising it as the quiverfull movement or something?

Scary. Almost makes me want to run out and have a rainbow family. Almost, but, well, not really.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on March 2, 2011 at 6:22pm

Lots of ideologies engage in the breeding-war idea. Occasionally atheists do too. My response is, why would I want my kid in a world that's overrun with religious fundamentalists and stupid people? A breeding war isn't going to make anything better.

Permalink Reply by Tonya Wynn on November 8, 2010 at 1:12pm

I usually hear "Who's gonna take care of when you're old?" Many smalltown women think it's my duty to have kids and that I'm cold and selfish and even antisocial for not wanting them (or barren). Some smalltown men think I must be selfish and not passive enough. True, I hate being a 24 hour maid/servant.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on March 2, 2011 at 6:26pm

I got a new one from one of my friends:

"What if everyone thought like you? In a hundred years humans would die out."

I love this friend, I really do, but...FACEPALM. There is a one in 7 billion chance that all 7 billion of us vastly overpopulated humans will decide not to have kids, not be able to have kids, not be forced to have kids, or not get pregnant by accident.

Anyway, what's the problem if all of us enjoy our lives without children and then humanity dies out? We had a good run.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on July 25, 2012 at 7:55am

There will always be a population problem so long as having sex is more popular than dying.

Permalink Reply by Harridan20 on July 18, 2012 at 6:27pm

"Having kids will mature you." I'm guessing taking care of yourself financially and being responsible doesn't count.

Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on September 5, 2012 at 3:29am

Oh hell that's the most insulting one.

I've me a ton of immature moms. Dragging their kids around when the 3-year-old is clearly sleepy, tired, and doesn't want to be their. Spoiling their children to death and not doing anything when their 5-year-old steals from stores. Bringing kids to midnight premieres of R-rated movies(Watchmen had a TON of elementary school-age kids in it! WHAT THE HELL. It has blue penis. It has sex scenes. It has political themes. It is not for kids!)

Having kids does not "mature" you. Having kids will not "cure my depression" as some have suggested. Having kids will not make a girl who was previously 14, got D's on her report cards, and got in arguments with her mom, suddenly get straight A's and get along with her mother.

Also, any time someone says this, I usually sigh and go "have you even SEEN the descriptions for most episodes of Teen Mom?" 99% of them are girls who can't do the most basic of care for their children but had them because of some pro-life "I'm better than you because I had sex and the egg implanted" ideal.

So you had sex. Thanks for alerting the world with a screaming bundle of snot.

No, it doesn't make anyone more mature. In fact, it usually makes people who were already abusive, even more abusive, and people who were already depressed, even more depressed.

Permalink Reply by Cory D Wells on July 24, 2012 at 10:55am

"But you're so smart, you owe it to the world to reproduce" _mother/ Grandmoster

While I love the pandering, and I am a narcissist so i do love this, but I do not wish to pass my health issues as well as my general attitude onto the a creature under my care.

Permalink Reply by Beth KZ on September 1, 2012 at 6:09pm

I've got two - one that was the real "facepalm" and the other was a unique one:

"If you get pregnant, and don't eat any more than you do now, you'll lose weight!" (unique) Yeah, I see all of the women who gained about 4 sizes and tell me that it's the "baby weight" that "just wouldn't come off". If I wanted to lose weight, there are plenty of diet/exercise plans - even less safe things like pills and surgeries - that would be far safer, would not impact the entire life of another person, and wouldn't so permanently effect my life and others' lives.

Now, I don't like children. I'm a little squeamish about babies - much like touching a spider is for some people.

"Oh, you'll LOVE IT when it's your own!" (facepalm) Maybe I would. What if I didn't? I really detest someone who abuses a child, and I sure would not want to be someone like that! It's not worth it to me to take the chance. The person who said this also saw the utter horror on my face when someone plopped a wet, smelly baby in my lap.

Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on September 5, 2012 at 3:30am

"Sadly, I'm not the type of person who savors the smell of my own farts."

I win at retaliation for this kind of crap. It's from years of people not getting that I detest children if they aren't at least 14.

Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on September 5, 2012 at 3:23am

Wow, I haven't commented yet!

I can't believe I haven't.

Well, the worst shit I get to my face is usually people smugly going "well you'll change your mind, one day."

but here's some I've heard passed around:

"But Pregnancy is so beautiful!"

"kids are the greatest thing to ever happen to me!"

"But my kids are my greatest accomplishment!"

"You're denying God's path by not having children!"

"How can you NOT choose to be a mother? I'm sure you'd make a great one!"

"But don't you want to be treated like a pregnant goddess!"

"It's the most pure love of all, how can you not want to experience it!"

"You'll change your mind eventually, and you'll regret not having kids sooner."

"You're just selfish."

"You're just bitter that you haven't found a man yet who will fuck you."

"Yeah, it's because no one will have sex with you, right?"

"Well you know birth control is evil, and you'll give into the sin of sex eventually."

From an atheist: "That's your job, though, to find a man who will put up with your crap attitude and raise his kids to be good atheist children. We have to out-breed these religious people."

"But your life needs to have purpose..."

"What, were you raped as a child?"

"Were you abused as a child?"

"Do you just want to deprive your parents of being grandparents?"

"So when do you plan on having kids of your own?"(this one actually has been asked, by my dad's side of the family, when my sister got pregnant. She's 16 months younger than me, so I'm "failing" because I haven't chosen a stupid racist redneck/settled/settled down/dealt with verbal/physical abuse so I can please their idea of a "good woman")

"God created all women to be mothers. It's in the bible."

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on September 5, 2012 at 8:20am