Children are Pointless

Who is going to look after you when you're old? Who will keep you company? Who will bury you?

 

That might be a good science fiction story, I virus kills our ability to reproduce forever, and then like 90 years later there's a bunch of old farts stumbling around and drooling over corpses and waiting to die.

 

Ask your mother.

 

I have friends, who brag about being DINKS (Double Income No KidS) they are free to do anything they want and have all this extra money. But seriously it will get old as they get old at some point they'll be drooling over each other and since they hate their nieces and nephews because they are kids, at some point nobody will bother to come see them. I see a value to having kids, I have a daughter and as much as she can (*)(*)(*)(*) me off, she's worth having around.

 

Having so much money allows the best of all medical care. "DINKs" are smart enough to live healthy lives and are more likely to live to a healthy ripe old age then drop dead rather than spend 10-15 years in a home in a rocking chair sucking on an O2 bottle because they lived an unhealthy lifestyle....which is common among the uneducated and the poor.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/wealthhealth.aspx

It takes about $250,000 to raise a kid. That buys a lot of gym time, personal trainers, healthy living and vacations.

 

Come back to us when you are 55, bitter, lonely, probably an alcoholic by that point, impotent or so sterile that your sperm count can't enable you to have kids, watching your siblings or your friends happily raising their own kids and watching with pride as they stride off into adulthood, then regretting that you allowed your narrow-minded thinking to allow your own life to pass you by, with no legacy to leave behind as you approach a miserable and lonely death.

Or better yet, such a bitter attitude and outlook on life will inevitably breed bitter offspring, so maybe you are doing the rest of us a favor by not reproducing. Keep living it up on that island that you have created for yourself, boy, because that's all that you are ever going to get with that line of thinking. I have a wonderful little boy to look after, by the way, so I don't spend much time brooding and b**ching about politics on this forum as much as I used to.

 

I have a couple of friends that are DINKs. The thing I've noticed is that they have nothing to pour all of their attention and affection into but their lifestyle. They spend all of their time living in the moment, traveling the world, buying expensive cars, etc. but lack children of their own to nurture and provide for, which everyone has an innate instinct for. Those are the people who end up being that 50-year-old woman cougaring around a bunch of 20-something kids thinking that she's still "got it", or that old guy at the club dancing by hisself on the dance floor, hitting on clubrat gals young enough to be his granddaughters. Oh yeah, you all know who I'm talking about; those people!

"There comes a time when the jewels cease to sparkle, and the gold loses its luster. When all a father has left in the world is the love for his daughter." ~ King Osric, Conan The Barbarian

 

There is certainly a segment of DINKs who would follow the profile you described. I usually don't hang around those who are so highly materialistic so I'll take your word that your friends are like that.

 

People who say they're happy their life ended so they could change diapers are liars.

I won't be lonely. I just won't have the burden you will.

Have fun working for all that money you'll never see.

 

I'm 38 and I have never changed a dirty diaper in my life.


EVER.

 

Who is going to look after you when you're old? Who will keep you company? Who will bury you ?


Your kids? Did you sign a contract for those services?

Even if you did it does not guarantee those services will be provided.


Is that why you had kids so you could use them in your old age?

 

there is a circle of life thing going on for sure.... but you have a better chance at a better quality of life in your twilight years with kids than you do without them.

 

So called educated spoiled white adult from middle class suburbia with to much time on his hands hating parents and the world from the view of the basement all the while wanting to set public policy and paying child support?

Sucks to be such a miserable creature.

 

Yup, but "chance" is the operative word.
Money is for certain.


And having kids so you can have someone to take care of you in old age is selfish......(which I mention only because there are some people who think not having children is selfish )

 

Maybe, but not quite as pointless as this thread though,

 

WOW! How selfish to place the burden of YOUR quality of life on your children!

You are saying you are NOTHING, have nothing, experience NOTHING unless you can do it through your children!!!???!!!


Too bad your life is so cocooned that you have no idea that plenty of child-free people have active wonderful fulfilling lives and many parents have miserable lives with unhappy, disrespectful, neglectful PIA kids.

I have watched friends agonize over their kid's early pregnancies, drug addiction, criminal activity, smart mouths and total disrespect, failure in school, lack of incentive to find a job, illnesses, and accidents.

Of course not all kids bring those problems but many do ...they do NOT come with guarantees.

And I am well over 55 and have never been,"" bitter, lonely, probably an alcoholic by that point, impotent or so sterile that your sperm count can't enable you to have kids,""

What a ridiculous statement.....

How narrow minded to think that everyone is so narrow minded and ignorant that they can't think of anything to do with their lives but have kids...

 

Yeah, I do enjoy reliving the life cycle vicariously through my daughter. She's 13 and in this Select soccer league, that plays Friday Nights under the lights... I LOVE IT! At 55, I'm too old and broken down to do that, like back in the '70s when I played High School Football under the Friday Night Lights! Yup, I absolutely love USING her to bring back the memories of "back in the day"... But so what? I'm raising her, putting my all into it, why shouldn't I enjoy it? That's the problem with the child hater and the DINKs, you see it as a burden, I see it as a FUN 20+ year science project where I feed her, water her, and watch her grow, and enjoy watching it all play out! The good and the bad, So what? It's a mutal relationship, she needs me until she can be on her own, and I enjoy the whole experience! Does it cost a lot? YES, But so does all the stuff the DINKS ad the Hugh Hefner wannabes spend their cash on.

 

If people want to have kids and can provide for them, not my concern. Even if I were not light in the loafers, I still wouldn't want kids. I just do not have the patience for them. The only thing that has kept me from slapping some of my nephews across the room was the fact that they weren't me kids.

 

I'm 48, and I've proudly changed diapers (and cleaned up vomit and diarrhea and (*)(*)(*)(*)). Don't see the big deal, it's easy to do, and somebody has to do it.

 

Awesome response!

I agree totally. Having kids is fun. It allows you to do silly things, and have an excuse to do fun things. My sons are Boy Scouts, and I'm one of their leaders. On my own, I never would have backpacked and slept on top of a mountain in a storm. I got the chance to see a 2 yr old being bowled over in the surf, laughing every second (at 14 he still loves the surf in a special way). Being a parent is cool.

 

Absolutely, I was an athlete growing up, and now I am too old to play team sports, this year she is in a serious soccer league, with so called "real coaches", so I am reduced to just being a fan, but the last 5 years, I've enjoyed big time being assitant coach with all her teams. For me, it's FUN! Being part of the team. Not a burden, the DINKy & SINKy crowd, friends of mine, ask me all the time, isn't it annoying that you have all that time wrapped up with these "kids activities" while they are at happy hour or going for a weekend at Atlantic City or something, they don't get that to me, being with that kid's team is MORE FUN that what they are doing. I never had a kid until age 42, for me, all the joy of happy hours, clubbing and "adult" nights out where too boring to be desired by me a couple of decades ago, been there done that! Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time comprehending how those people aren't bored with that crap by now? Now empty nesters, I can understand them returning to that and enjoying as I may do in another 10 years, but to each his own.

 

Children are Pointless is the theme of this thread. You do know that if you see a gaggle of 6 year olds walking to the bus stop to catch the school bus....that if you come back 10 years later, and see a gaggle of 6 year olds walking to the bus stop to catch the school bus...They aren't the same 6 year olds you saw the first time. You do know that right? Now, there's a pretty good chance that, on the other end of the spectrum, an equal number of old folks that were around 10 years ago have departed and have been replaced by an equal number of contemporary old folks.
This system is called survival of the species. If you don't like this system and would like to see it altered, then be prepared to be of the last generation of mankind.

 

Actually I think the same gaggle of 6 year olds is getting smaller and smaller, as more people choose to have less and less children. When I was a kid there where like 30-40 kids on my block, currently on a similar sized block, there might be 8-10. People don't want to have kids, that's fine, but I'm prejudiced! I think you are missing out it is a crazy rollercoaster ride for sure, and clearly the childless life is safer and less adventurous, believe it or not.

 

People that do not wish to have children should not have them. People who think children are pointless are surely right about their own children.
Many people who have children should not have them. But if no one were to have one, the human race would become extinct.
Perhaps a good thing for the gorillas and orangutans

 

There's an interesting thing that's always bothered me about not having kids - it's so unique. Not that this is a be all end all reason, but rather an interesting thought. I've had this kind of conversation before:

Friend: I don't want to have kids
Me: really?
Friend: Yeah.
Me: That's weird.
Friend: Why?
Me: Because you'll be the first to do so.
Friend: No, many people don't have kids.
Me: But can you think of any of your ancestors who didn't have kid?
Friend: Well, my Uncle didn't have any, and my Great Aunt-
Me: No, I mean can you think of any of your direct ancestors, your parents, their parents, etc., who didn't have any kids?
Friend: Well no, of course not.
Me: So going all of the way back through your line to the first humans, you will be the first to not have kids, right?
Friend: Huh. That is weird.