Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's my job to teach my kids well enough to get them into a position to survive. The Earth is huge.
I was talking about the survival of humanity.
I know, I am talking about the portion of humanity I can help survive.
No one wants to have kids anymore
351–360 of 457 posts
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#352Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess. What is the percentage of people who have to wear diapers their whole life? I don't know but it has to be a small fraction of a percent.
> I guess. You guess what? That potential parents should be prepared to take care of their children for their entire life? I think that's reasonable. Things happen all the time, too, where tragedies happen and people suffer medical issues that require lifetime care. Being a parent is committing to that. And if your thought is "I'm going to gamble that it doesn't happen to me" is really telling. Regardless, being info…
I'm pushing back against this:
> “The low-sleep phase is temporary.” Nope. “Same goes for changing diapers” Nope.
Someone made the point that, in some small fraction of cases, a child might be in diapers their whole life.
What would you call the diaper-changing phase, if not "temporary"? "Temporary in 99.999% of cases"? It's certainly not "permanent."
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#354Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they "seem" happy, then they are not "consistently mak[ing] it clear how terrible having kids is."
You're talking about two different contexts: they can make happy while with friends and family where there are social expectations, and they can also report how they honestly feel in anonymous or confidential circumstances, like surveys, studies and therapy. The analogy I made to depression was intentional because it exhibits exactly this pattern: every depressed person consistently reports how terrible it is, and ye…
I'm talking about the statement that "Real parents consistently make it clear how terrible having kids is."
If they "seem" happy in all my interactions, I don't see how they can be "consistently mak[ing] clear how terrible having kids is."
I also don't see how some secret only-tell-the-therapist-and-pollsters views could qualify as "consistently mak[ing] clear" their supposed negative feelings.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
By adding another portion, you decrease the chances for the whole.
I'm sorry you feel that way. If everyone stops having kids the chances for the whole is 0%.
It won't happen anytime soon, so you don't have to worry. I am not arguing that everyone should stop having kids. This comment will not be read by everyone.
Also, it's not just my feeling, it's proven by research: https://www.kimnicholas.com/uploads/2/5/7/6/25766487/fig1ful....
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you’re focused on these experiences as the defining characteristics of being a parent, you’ll completely miss the big picture. Right. Because that’s the easy part, when they’re babies. At first I didn’t believe my friend’s dad when he told me it actually gets more difficult when they get older.
It really does get harder. Babies are not really that hard. They're a lot of work, but each individual thing you have to do is easy. Annoying or gross, sure, sometimes. But changing a diaper takes about a minute. Night time can be tough at first but if you do a good job with sleep training it gets better pretty quickly. My wife breastfed, so most mid-sleep wakeups just become "go grab the baby and hook him onto Mom,…
> Everyone seems to think there are a million qualifications they have to meet before becoming a parent. "We need to have a house, and 100k in savings, etc etc etc." And yes, it's good to be prepared. But also, as long as you're a semi functional human, you'll make it work.
Very true. I didn’t have my own place to live or any money when the first one was on the way. In fact, my kids are the reason I started a new career, worked my way up, bought a house.
It doesn’t all have to happen in a specific order. Like the parent post says, you make it work.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#358Man, and people give me a hard time about speaking hyperbole 8-/
I mean WTF? Really! OMG there will only be 10B people! OMG!! OMG!!!
Seriously, if 98% of the human species vanished, it can't be anything but a good thing.
The only people "worried" about this reduction are extractive capitalists who are afraid there aren't going to be enough idiot herd to pilfer.
OMG!!!!!
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having a kid is the most fun I’ve ever had. Used to go to raves, done bunch of crazy sexual stuff, as well as most drugs under the sun. There’s nothing close to chasing a toddler in a circle for an hour.
I love wrastling toddlers, too. I wanted to say—these two lifestyles you describe (raves and toddlers) are not incompatible. I’ve had to get better at scheduling and communication, that’s all. For me, it was really helpful to develop concrete agreements with my partner. (E.g., I get to travel 8 weeks a year, I have to schedule 1 month in advance, and it can be for any reason). I don’t like the view that having kids m…
> I don’t like the view that having kids means giving up on what you love to do in life.
Is there anyone other than you and your spouse helping raise the children? Does your spouse work?
Lots of people do not have support from friends or family. Being able to take off while spouse is pregnant and taking care of 3 other kids is surely an abnormal situation.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#360I recently decided to have kids. Got my wife pregnant, concluded I needed a raise, so I started to work really hard, go above and beyond, 5 months in a row of crunching overtime, got promised a raise during this. Then just as my kid is about to be born, I get fired. Still happy my wife is pregnant, but now I know why so many people give advice of the sort "do just the minimum necessary and never treat the company as…
you're never going to get rich working for someone else, start a business if you want to increase your income. The whole point of the day job is just to pay the bills while you build your business which will make you rich. Sorry you had to learn that lesson the hard way, hope your financial situation improves soon. :)
I would expect you havee 0 experience in starting a company?
The overwhelming majority of small business starts fail.
People who come from wealthy families, or have other sources of finance, are able to be repeat offenders until possibly they succeed.
Almost everyone else fails.
Starting a business is primarily the best way to blow you life savings while working 60hour weeks.
Some exceptions exist...