To think it's unacceptable to say you don't like children?

In what kind of a scenario? And how do you sense the parent “taking it personally”?

Some parents sometimes do take it personally if I don’t interact with their child who is trying to interact with me.

Anyone say you are obliged to interact with children?

anyone even remotely hint you are “obliged” to interact with children?

I don’t dislike children. Sometimes I find them cute, other times not, sometimes they just don’t register on my radar. I’m not obliged to interact with children just because they are children.

It’s embedded in your culture maybe @Blessthismess2
But certainly not mine

are the multiple of times people have voiced to you that they hate children… was this by any chance directed as your children?

While I am always rooting for the bull I still don't find people getting hurt funny

Even matadors?

I don't like children i like my own but that's as far as my tolerance extends , I don't really like most people either though if I'm honest .
I absolutely would not be offended if someone said they didn't like kids , old people etc

Thats horrible, I don't find anyone hurting themselves funny

OP is not wrong, although I have mostly seen it on FB or TikTok comments. Some of these are really disgusting too like if a kid is filmed accidentally hurting themselves they’ll laugh and say ‘do it again’. It’s become totally acceptable on these platforms to admit to hating children. IMO I think it’s quite an odd and somewhat worrying thing to admit. You’d never say it about another group of people.

@Blessthismess2
Many people in real life seem to have voiced their dislike for children to you. Who are these people? And maybe… distance yourself from them?

you are being repeatedly told by posters that in RL we do not experience people saying they “hate children”

and it is clearly so commonplace to you, that you literally can’t seem to grasp that we are telling you the truth!

Since when is making a sweeping and negative generalisation about an entire category of people a “valid” “preference”.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to not like children, just as valid a preference as yours or any other. How people articulate their view is more important though - it's probably inappropriate to say you don't like children when you're stood in front of your class of darling little pupils.

a) I take Mumsnet threads either a pinch of salt
b) I’ve seen a few posters say they don’t like kids on this thread, sure. I have also seen other demographic groups mentioned as not being liked.

no biggie

Exactly
I don’t regard mumsnet as RL
and aside from mumsnet… nope never heard anyone say they hate kids
i feel sorry for @Blessthismess2 that she seems to be surrounded by people voicing this to her?

Really? As you see from this thread it’s a pretty common, unremarkable sentiment.

I think it’s generally considered pretty socially unacceptable to say “I don’t like men” , although people might criticise patriarchy or male entitlement. in the same way, it’s not very acceptable to say “I don’t like white people” , although it is of course fine to criticise racism and white entitlement .

Regardless, Either of these things would of course be much less bad/ unacceptable compared to saying “I don’t like old people”, or “gay people”, or “brown people”. Saying you don’t like children is comparable to this group (rather than men or white people) since children are not part of a powerful, oppressive class of people.

Does it make someone a sociopath if they say they don’t like children? Of course not. it’s the ordinary, unremarkable product of a culture that others and dehumanises children as a social group .

Does it make children vulnerable? Well Children are already vulnerable. But A culture which dehumanises children certainly increases that vulnerability- it’s part of what creates the conditions for and silence around child abuse.

Does the world keep turning ?
Yes,

I don't like children but it is something I keep in my head when in company.
I don't understand them and find them noisy and chaotic. I dont even want polite kids approaching me (or anyone for that matter).

Neither have I, in real life. Only ever on Mumsnet. Maybe on Instagram, but I don’t go on there.

I am 17 years in to parenting

I honestly have never encountered anyone say “I don’t like children”

ever

I mean every other thread on MN is essentially women saying how much they hate men 🤣. But hey, we are good with that, and accept that it’s simply a phrase people use to express (predominantly temporary) feelings, although some are more concrete in their feelings, and thats fine too.

This thread has been taken, chewed up, pathologised, analysed, thrown back up, and dissected a bit more…when really it doesn’t need be.

Putting it simply, there is jack shit wrong with saying ‘hey I don’t really like kids’. The world will keep turning. It doesn’t render children vulnerable victims. It doesn’t render the person that says it a sociopath either.

Life is full of sweeping phrases and assertions that sound dramatic, but really aren’t, it’s no wonder so many philosophers have gone loopy loo in the past, too much trying to understand and collate thoughts and feelings that don’t warrant the energy. It’s cool, all is good.

Not hyperbolic at all. Just descriptive. The fact that so many people think it’s perfectly ordinary and socially acceptable to say they “don’t like children”, clearly failing to understand that the word “children” is just a collective name for a vast diversity of individual humans.

It would of course not be acceptable to say this about another group of humans, but to say it about “children” is just thought to be ordinary and understandable. someone even said it’s not the same as saying you dislike someone for being old or gay because people can’t help being those things, whereas children are a lifestyle choice 😆, clearly demonstrating a lack of understanding that children are actually individual human beings in their own right.

They are animals.

I equally have no issue with people not liking elderly people, boomers, gen z'ers etc.

Huh?

silly mumsnet thread dehumanising children because the odd person says they don’t like kids?

just a touch hyperbolic!

never encountered? It’s embedded in culture. Hence the subject/ argument on this thread. You are encountering it now by being here and reading this. (Nothing to do with having three children or not ).