Parents: if you had one day of your pre children life back, how would you spend it? Please keep it lighthearted

Why is that so offensive?!? Im genuinely interested

I took time out of my day to answer a question you specifically tagged me in. Turns out you aren't genuinely interested at all though and have decided to respond to me answering your question with sarcasm.

Got it.

You could have asked MNHQ to change the title several pages ago to avoid any more confusion or upset.

Yes you enjoyed a period of time where you were not a parent.

You were not a childfree by choice woman who has decided they will never have children, and will therefore live a non-mainstream lifestyle - attracting varying levels of suspicion/pity/derison/jealousy in the process - for the whole of their life.

Report your initial thread and ask in the text box

If I were the OP I really don’t think I would be bothering MNHQ over something like this. It would seem very disproportionate. The OP has explained the intent behind the thread numerous times now and it was clear to me, at least, that it was meant to be lighthearted.

Of course, if a thread touches on a subject we find difficult or painful, we can be triggered. Best to stay away from those threads, I find, rather than try and control everyone else’s experience.

Thread title is patronising as anything.

I think some people see offence at every turn. It’s predictable here.

Change the thread title to satisfy the permanently offended? That’s a joke I hope. 😳

Rubbish.

Can you imagine if I posted a thread as a childless person, saying that parenthood is wasted on parents because they're all raising theirs badly and I just know I'd do it better?

I'd be hung out to dry.

I hate this place sometimes, I really do.

You say “childless”. That’s a bit two centuries ago. Some posters might prefer “childfree” as a term.

(no tantrum in the offing - lol)

Divorce is under-rated! I get every other weekend kid free and it is wonderful. This weekend I intend to drive over to my boyfriend's on Friday night and eat a take-out with him on the sofa whilst catching up on our respective weeks. We will take a long walk with the dog on Saturday morning (weather permitting) followed by a lunch out. We normally have some peaceful Saturday afternoon sex and I get an hour or two to read my book in silence whilst he plays on his laptop. We cook together for dinner and potentially watch an episode of the box set we are currently sharing.

Sunday morning I get a lie in and he brings me coffee in bed before taking the dog out. Sometimes we got for a day out but this weekend we have a boardgame planned with snacks. I head home late Sunday afternoon and pick up my kid on the way.

Truly relaxing!!

I think the thread title was crap.

The OP itself - she was only musing on what parents would do with one half day/full day free a month and people started posting about how they'd circumnavigate the globe.

No, it isn't.

Childless can be used by people who are infertile, to denote that the choice was not theirs. That's why I'm using it.

Childfree can be used by those who want to make it clear that they have made an active choice.

I'd walk the dog with my dh. I actually really miss that, we have to walk her alone while the other is in with the kids or take the whole household with us.

A nice walk with the dog, stop for a drink at a local pub then home with a takeaway that the kids don't like/are allergic to. We could just eat it as soon as we're home rather than have to start cooking a separate meal for the children too.

When you're childfree, you think you're busy.

It's only when you have children you realise you weren't in the slightest.

But it's like anything. When you're slim, you moan about the odd 1lb weight gain here and there. When you're 3 stone overweight, you realise you were actually slim and should have been merrily wandering around in underwear all day!

You only know what something is like when you're done it.

On a simliar vein, I've always said if you could have a child having had the experience of already having one mentally so to speak, you would realise how bloody easy one baby is. But when you only have one baby you don't know that. And if you add a second baby in, that's 2 babies so not comparable.

No one said people without children have empty or frivolous lives - but it's simply not the same at all once you have the responsibility of small people to contend with day in day out.

I just don't think this is true and shows such a lack of empathy.

People say "no one ever tells you how hard it is having children", but in my experience no one ever shuts up about how hard it is having children. Seeing my sister, friends, cousins, go through that experience and really listening to them is one of the things that has made me decide to remain childfree.

Lost for words.

Another WTF?
Na I'd rather see my kids every day.

I agree.

I have a close friend who is childfree by choice.

She knows what I went through to have children, she knows how much joy they bring me and also how tired I am and how much my freedom is curtailed. She loves almost every aspect of her life and the parts she doesn't love (largely health related) would be made worse by children, not better.

I think that she has a very good idea about what having children involves (as much as you can without having actually lived it) which is why she made an informed decision not to have any.

I think she made the right decision for her and although I also made the right decision for me in deciding to have them, sometimes I envy her and would like to be her for a day every once in a while.