Spoiler alert: Idiocracy
No one wants to have kids anymore
361–370 of 457 posts
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#362I know this is going to be a hugely unpopular opinion, but life has no purpose if it was not for offspring. To me not wanting children gives me the same vibes as someone playing a sport or entering a competition and then not giving their absolute everything to win Gold.
I have a son, and he's awesome and I can't imagine life without him, nor would I want to experience life without him, but I find the propagation of our species the least interesting purpose of life. If nothing is done during that life except propagate, then nothing is happening of interest, just people hedonistically living. What is done with your life is the most important purpose, otherwise we are just cycling around to no end.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#363Kid-having emerges. This (western biased) article is blaming the victim. An entire generation bled dry by student loans for useless degrees, unable to buy homes that their elders view as retirement funds. A thousand and one more entertaining things to do online which don't risk creating 18-year bundles of debt. And absolutely no idea how to break the cycle for your offspring. Pick one thing to fix and spend your life…
Came here to say this - I live in London and see many a fellow parent struggling to even have space for the kids they already have (or soon will have). Trying hastily bolt on a loft extension - if they can afford that. Meanwhile landlords are reaping in INSANE rents from anyone who didn’t manage to buy back when that was at least a realistic dream. People are people. The urge to have kids is incredibly strong. But if…
Housing prices in London, SF, NYC, and most major cities are insane and unsustainable for all but the very rich. The average person should move and live anywhere else where they can afford it.
The US has wide open country areas for cheap.
I think too often people clamor to a lifestyle they can't afford and make believe it will magically workout.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#364I know this is going to be a hugely unpopular opinion, but life has no purpose if it was not for offspring. To me not wanting children gives me the same vibes as someone playing a sport or entering a competition and then not giving their absolute everything to win Gold.
would it not be easier to say "life has no purpose for you "? People are varied and have varying motivations, what's important to one is not necessarily important to another.
One small spark of reality is voiced in this comment ^^
Life HAS NO MEANING
Who ever started this idea that growing out of the slime mould on some obscure planet implies "meaning".
WTF is "meaning' anyway?
Isn't this just another way of asking "How does all of this affect me?"
The incredible level of a self centered view of the universe is one of the human primate's most distinguishing features...
BTW, I have one son, in his 20s. It's been both fulfilling and excruciating. I'm happy he was born, and I love him very much.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#365I know this is going to be a hugely unpopular opinion, but life has no purpose if it was not for offspring. To me not wanting children gives me the same vibes as someone playing a sport or entering a competition and then not giving their absolute everything to win Gold.
correction: life has no purpose, EVEN IF you have offspring. A self replicating machine doesn't have a purpose behind its actions, it just does them.
Thank you achenet!
Maybe everyone should watch the Steve Martin movie "The Jerk".
He searches for his "purpose".
SPOILER: It turns out to be his dick 8-)
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 car…
> Like the parent post says, you make it work.
What does make it work mean? Most people I know will not accept the child “surviving” as making it work.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#367I have decided not to have kids, at least partly because I believe Earth is already overpopulated for the living standard that humans deserve. Occasionally, someone asks the idiotic question, what if everybody made the same decision? Well, if they truly did, I would have made a different choice. All these projections about (white) replacement are fundamentally flawed because they assume that the reasons for the decis…
You are just a narcissist.
Am I? I think from a selfish perspective, I am making a huge mistake. I have no doubt that having kids is a lot of fun, which I will miss, and also when I get old, I will miss someone keeping an eye on me. (Technically, you don't need your own kids for that but our society is, for better or worse, structured that way.) And I hope next generation will be very slightly better off (less resource contention) because of my choice.
Also, to clarify another thread which is no longer there, I am not anti-natalist, but "anatalist" - I believe in personal choice in this matter. I also don't think anatalism is hereditary, but acquired from intellectual reflection of the world.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#368The only solution is to ban condoms. Will solve so many problems. Btw this article neglects to mention a very important feedback loop: less babies equals less economic growth, which equals less babies because it’s too expensive, which in turn leads to less economic growth and so on. Collapsing birth rates are a serious problem! You won’t notice until the country becomes a depopulated wasteland and then it will be too…
> The only solution is to ban condoms. Will solve so many problems. Is that a serious comment, or sarcasm? Because banning condoms will not solve any problems, it will create more. If you want people to have more kids, make sure they can afford more kids: pay young families more, give them the ability to buy a house big enough to raise children in, provide affordable childcare, and offer better healthcare to pregnant…
People can’t afford enough kids because there isn’t enough economic growth, because there’s not enough young people, the only solution is more people. Banning condoms - or banning premarital sex as Indonesia has done recently - are sort of the only ways out of this mess.
You’ll know I am right if you live long enough - another 30 to 40 years and it will be obvious to anyone how catastrophic low birth rates can be.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worse problems than a dying population? I don’t think so. If the population keeps getting older and smaller by definition it is dying. And not dying is the first imperative of life.
> Worse problems than a dying population? I don’t think so. What worth is it to have a population who don't feel they're valued? Forcing others to have children just because you're concerned about population ignores the truly human element. You should instead focus on wanting to help people be happy and feel secure in their economy and self such that they want to have children. Abolishing contraceptives is not the ri…
The human element? Humans like kids naturally especially their own. A lot of women will have kids when they hit 30 and wish they’d started earlier and recognize the incredibly disrespectful attitudes towards women who want to continue human civilization.
Re: No one wants to have kids anymore
#370A word of advice to anyone on the fence about having kids: There’s nothing wrong with choosing not to have kids, but do yourself and consult with actual parents for what it’s really like to have kids. Articles like this one, which are written by someone who apparently has chosen not to have children, are almost universally terrible at representing the true experience of being a parent. Yes, being a parent involves a…
As I am getting older, I see young couples told to wait till they are settled and are in a better situation to have their token child. If you want children , do not wait. It will never be 'better situation'. There will be always some reason, mostly financial not to have them.
While this might be right for overall humanity, for white collar professional workers specifically (typical audience of HN), I think late 20's / early 30's is a pretty good time to have kids - people have a solid 10 years of career experience under their belt, proportional amount of savings which help with both a financial cushion and with down payment for a house and some emotional maturity. On the other hand, one can get all sorts of experiences in 20's and their novelty starts wearing off. Finally, one is still young enough to have enough energy for child rearing.