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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

584 replies

BirdPlanet · 17/05/2025 09:23

Increasingly I've heard people saying some variation of the statement 'I don't like children'. I don't see why this is in any way acceptable. You wouldn't say that you 'don't like' any other category of person. If I said I didn't like the elderly or middle-aged women as a group, I'd get slapped down, yet somehow people think it's okay to talk about children as if they aren't human beings. Is it because they can't speak or advocate for themselves? Children aren't some kind of homogeneous entity. They have personalities and different temperaments, just as adults do.

Inevitably people will say that it's used as a shorthand for disliking the behaviour of some children, but even so, that’s more of a reflection of poor parenting than anything else.

OP posts:
Hoppinggreen · 21/05/2025 10:29

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

Phoenixfire1988 · 21/05/2025 10:33

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

BadLad · 21/05/2025 10:52

Hoppinggreen · 21/05/2025 10:29

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

Even matadors?

Hoppinggreen · 21/05/2025 11:15

BadLad · 21/05/2025 10:52

Even matadors?

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

Andthenextafterthat · 21/05/2025 14:38

Blessthismess2 · 19/05/2025 15:36

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 ).

Edited

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?

KimberleyClark · 21/05/2025 14:46

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.

Andthenextafterthat · 21/05/2025 15:01

KimberleyClark · 21/05/2025 14:46

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.

Anyone say you are obliged to interact with children?

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

KimberleyClark · 21/05/2025 15:05

Andthenextafterthat · 21/05/2025 15:01

Anyone say you are obliged to interact with children?

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

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

Surprisinglyeasy · 21/05/2025 15:11

KimberleyClark · 21/05/2025 15:05

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

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

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