Parents hate the Childfree

Here’s my original post, as you can see it was in response to children being taken to museums, which can be great for children as they have interactive stuff they can enjoy.

KimberleyClark · Yesterday 09:11

Unpaidviewer · Yesterday 08:58
So badly behaved toddlers and children are comparable to the Irish?
I do see some bad parenting but it tends to be the exception. I would think the issue is with you being unaccomodating if you find the behaviour of that many different children and families unacceptable.
Museums tend to be very inclusive and encourage families to visit. I take my toddler to lots of places where certain parts would be incomprehensible but he gains a lot from days out.
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Some years ago we went to a showing of a Shakespeare film at a small independent cinema. Some people had brought their children with them and they were bored out of their brains and simply allowed to run riot. They spent the whole evening chasing each other around the cinema and up and down the central stairs. Their parents didn’t even try to control them.
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I was making the point that a Shakespeare play may nor be particularly engaging for young children, fair enough if they are older and studying it at school. Other posters did seem to get my point. If you still don’t then that is your problem not mine and I can’t help you any further. 🤷‍♀️

@Roxietrees imagine being your child and hearing your mum say that she’s half way between being a parent and child free but with “none of the benefits” of being child free

no words

Yes, you can’t be ‘slightly’ a parent. You’re as much a parent with one child as with five.

Though, in fairness to @Roxietrees, as this may be what she means, other people’s responses to me as someone longterm contentedly childfree who then had a baby at 40 often suggested that as the parent of an only child I somehow wasn’t quite enough of a parent to their mind. The same type of mildly underthinking person who thought it was ‘selfish’ to be childfree turned out, after I had DS, to think it was also ‘selfish’ to have an only child.

I concluded they couldn’t handle someone whose life looked ‘easier’ than theirs, and didn’t like being reminded that having three children, or indeed any children, is a choice, not compulsory.

Put us out of our misery @KimberleyClark !!

Quite, having one child is not half way between not being a parent and not being one. I ‘m always baffled when I see people on here who are ambivalent about having children being told “just have one”.

WTF?

You most definitely aren’t “child free”

Having only one child I feel sort of halfway between child free and not child free. But without all the benefits of being child free - eg. my child still impacts my freedom and career etc but when I’m old and lonely I’ll only have one to choose from and what if we don’t end up being close when she’s an adult?! 😬 maybe I should have another one….

So, yep, parents and dog owners these days definitely hate people they don’t perceive to be other parents or dog owners.

what a daft baffling view you have here @HoppingPavlova

all parents? all dog owners? That’s some sweeping generalisation. My DC are well behaved, I don’t get my holidays for free so also pay ‘good money’ for them and I don’t give a fuck whether someone else had kids (or a dog).

Good for you that you made certain decisions, other people aren’t in any way obliged to make the same ones.

Great minds!

But by referring to this one example in a family film three decades ago… what was your point?

that some parents are inconsiderate? Anything else? @KimberleyClark

You are so right. I don’t spend much time dwelling on potential negatives of my old age at all - it will be what it will be. I’m taking care of my body - and hopefully by extension my mind - and am planning to be a fiercely independent old woman.

Oh stop it. Up to you. Your life

But what point does it prove? There was no point!

Are you? God, I’m not! 😂

And all I extrapolated was that the parents were maybe being optimistic to think young children aged 7-8 would find a Shakespeare film entertaining. And they didn’t, and they subsequently ruined the film for everyone else, which proves my point. And all this “what about adults” - sheer whataboutery. And completely beside the point.

Turns out it was the 1996 film that poster was referring to
so an experience 30 years ago
at a cinema watching a PG “wholesome family fun” described film!

The film was a PG described as “wholesome family fun”

I am sorry that your experience THIRTy years ago was spilt by some inconsiderate parents but…. Are you really using this as an example… of what?! @KimberleyClark

Exactly
it’s so odd
I posted how a cinema visited for me was ruined by an adult couple next to me.
i don’t extrapolate anything other than that couple were inconsiderate plonkers

DH/I are parents but ours are adults now, and I do find there is a lot of hate from parents and accusations of not having kids/understanding kids which is laughable. We just didn’t let our kids run riot and impact on others with an entitled justification of they are ‘spirited/know their own minds/don’t want to stifle their individuality/insert other justifications for bad behaviour here.

We didn’t foist our kids bad behaviour on anyone else so expect the same. And yes, this meant things like not taking them on planes etc until an age when we knew they would, without doubt, be well behaved and not disturb others. And yes, that means sometimes they missed being introduced to older relatives and so forth. So, we had things like road trip holidays where crying babies and all bad behaviour of bored toddlers/kids was confined to our car and then really shitty ‘family resorts’ where we were all in the same boat. These days parents take kids on planes to nice resorts where people pay good money, let them run riot in restaurants, visiting your table and when you express displeasure at a child with hands all over your table trying to grab things you are given a mouthful, talked to like you are childless, told that this is ‘cute’ , you should somehow be bloody grateful their child is there doing that, and you don’t understand children, and good luck in your old age etc.

So, yep, parents and dog owners these days definitely hate people they don’t perceive to be other parents or dog owners.

And what conclusion are you drawing from this? That sometimes people are inconsiderate? I don't think it says much about kids per se.

It was a well behaved adult audience. The only thing spoiling it was the children.

Well, some older kids would love Twelfth Night.

I'd probably prefer that to the phone scrollers, the drink slurpers, the talkers, and the amorous couples.

What's clear is that's all you're insistent on hearing, regardless of what's being said.

Well it's probably the number one thing childfree people hear. Just an odd thing to focus on. And it's clear parents think they have the upper hand because they will have something "meaningful" in the end whilst the childfree just have their cash and holidays.