Population overload.

[chaosmaker]

Just wondering if anyone else thinks that we are at a stage where we should incentivise/reward people who choose not to breed. We're on a finitely resourced planet and I've just read a thread where people were talking about some celebrity having a 4th kid via a surrogate.
Should we talk about how the more kids you have, the more competition you are making for them in adult life?

AI is already being used to take over previously human staffed jobs. It's been creeping into jobs like journalism for ages.
There have been famines in various countries for ever and yet we are at a point in evolution where we have more power over our fertility than ever.
Interested in what other people think about this.

I think the transition phase will be quite hard unless we use technology a lot better and invest in how we manage ageing populations.

Nothing wrong with having a childfree board (I was pretty close to being childfree myself). I think of mumsnet as a place for women more than anything else. It’s an interesting discussion, I’ve been staring at population figures for a while and it’s fascinating.

Most populations seem resistant to government intervention to encourage childbearing. I’ve see quite a few articles suggesting people can’t afford to have kids and I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Most of the people I know without kids just really don’t want them.

@SwordToFlamethrower We didn't ask for this topic to be in Active.

Don't like the thread, hit back. I don't go into TTC and complain about "shitty natalism".

and that is why I posted this in CF!

What a ridiculous over-reaction. Just don't click on the thread if you don't like the title.

😂

Err… I’m CF poster. It was just a suggestion since it‘a the second drive-by I’ve seen today.

I only found this board as someone had mentioned it on the thread where the woman wanted her group of CF friends to rearrange their lives for her childcare so she could go off and shag :)

Alternatively you could go back to MN proper and leave us alone?

Cheers!

I didn't think about it being childfree board, just vaguely agree that there should be incentives and benefits for both childfree and those with up to 2 kids, the replacement number. It would just be recognising their generally lower carbon footprint. Also, single childless people seem to get hardly any help at all, which seems unfair. I am parent to 3 kids so possibly in the wrong place.

@user9630721458 all opinions and ideas welcome on how to tackle this problem. It just isn't looked at as if it is a problem by most people.

@user9630721458 Parents are welcome! Just not people causing trouble and being arsey.

@chaosmaker and@fitzwilliamdarcy Many thanks!

Oh dear, has someone had a trying day with little Jack and Lily?

Antinatalism means thinking that no one should have kids. I haven't seen anyone on here say that - even me, and I've probably come the closest.

I actually don't think that at all. Having worked with people who experience the shitty end of life for the last 30 years, I believe that parents should consider carefully before conceiving, and think beyond the child's actual childhood, not that no one should conceive.

I spend all day, every day, at work, dealing with the fall-out of people traumatised by shitty childhoods. I want to see less suffering because I don't like seeing people suffer. If that offends you, that's your problem.

Antinatalism means thinking that no one should have kids. I haven't seen anyone on here say that - even me, and I've probably come the closest.

Nihilistic I thought.

See previous answer.

Parents who are affronted by the very idea that their child may later suffer in adulthood is one major reason we have so many traumatised adults. The number of parents who say that they never gave any thought to not having kids is remarkable.

Many parents go on to produce kids who suffer both in childhood and adulthood. That's not to say that all the suffering is caused by poor parenting (though I see many cases where it is), but it is undeniably true that you have to be born to suffer in the first place.

Not globally

That's not to say that all the suffering is caused by poor parenting (though I see many cases where it is), but it is undeniably true that you have to be born to suffer in the first place.

That's not to say that all the suffering is caused by poor parenting (though I see many cases where it is), but it is undeniably true that you have to be born to suffer in the first place.

Likewise to experience happiness.

So 🤷‍♀️

Happiness is fleeting and the pursuit of it is often shaped by consumer society - get the nice house, the foreign holidays, the new car, the successful career. People can spend their lives chasing these things and still feel empty. I don't know if happiness is the right goal and it's often quite a selfish one. Maybe just leaving this place a bit better than how you found it is a better goal.

Happiness is fleeting and the pursuit of it is often shaped by consumer society - get the nice house, the foreign holidays, the new car, the successful career. People can spend their lives chasing these things and still feel empty. I don't know if happiness is the right goal and it's often quite a selfish one. Maybe just leaving this place a bit better than how you found it is a better goal.

Or maybe be joy, or satisfaction or contentment or peace

• whatever you consider appropriate

My point being you have to be born to experience it.

@sunglassesonthetable Absolutely. Despite life being very difficult at times, I still find beauty in it and am very grateful to have seen it all! On the other hand, I have never suffered the way someone living in a war zone or famine might do, so am coming from a privileged perspective. I'd hazard a guess that even those people don't wish they had never been born so much as wish for their suffering to end, which is quite different.

Oh God, again with the suffering? Man alive.

Deep, man.

Do you not think beyond the end of your own nose? What a shame.

As someone born to abusive parents, I can’t say I’d be bothered if they’d chosen not to have me, because I wouldn’t know any different. Do I think adult life is worth what I experienced and had to overcome? No, not really.