Worst comment you've had as a child free woman

[derekdied]

I'll start. Someone I had literally met about fifteen minutes previously. One of her first questions "do you have kids?" Me "no.." her "oh could you just not be bothered with the responsibility?" 😮

The tax allowance thread?

No, the “squeezed middle” thread. I think the tax allowance thread was inspired by it.

Someone is now positing the “interesting idea” of childfree people getting no state pension and/or parents getting a bigger state pension for raising taxpaying citizens.

It scares me that these people can vote.

I thought the childfree topic was supposed to be the one that attracted incels

There is something very incelish about suggestion women don't get a pension unless they have a child.

Incels would just love it if women were forced into relationships or be penalised.

Apparently we didn't need the childfree to attract incels, they are already over on the main boards 🙄

They can fuck right off. I will pay more net taxes per pound earned because I won't get child benefit.

So, they want the childfree to work more hours to ensure they can run home whenever they need to deal with their sick kids, pay
more taxes that help support their kids, receive less benefits and have our right to claim any benefits questioned (as all benefits should go to them and their poor children don’t you know) and on top of all that, receive zero or a reduced state pension as thanks.

But a lot of posters on MN will have us believe that the negative treatment of CF folk is just in our heads and not remotely grounded in reality.

Sure, when we’re literally being told that we’re entitled to less and have to do more due to what we chose or indeed didn’t choose to do with our uteruses. That’s not negative treatment. That’s just…well, an opinion.

There’s even been an implication on that thread that childfree people take less good care of their health and so cost the NHS more!

Hmm, yes - no maternity care, no free prescriptions, no DC using the NHS for the rest of their lives (or as long as the NHS keeps going). Don't think that one adds up somehow!

Weekends seem to bring out the loons, for some reason.

Someone is now positing the “interesting idea” of childfree people getting no state pension

There's no logical connections in their brains, is there? if I'm not going to get a SP why should I work and pay tax? let's just watch the whole fabric of the social contract and by extension the whole of society fall apart, shall we?

I stopped reading the squeezed middle thread after it started on about 'families.' I felt like raising my hand and jumping up and down to remind them that it's not just families feeling the pinch; but in common with most of MSM they appear to think us singletons (whose life isn't worth living, according to another thread) are magically immune from having to pay bills and that supermarkets give us stuff for free.

I hear this regularly from both my Mum, my DSis and from BiL and SiL on DH's side - so a lovely double whammy from both sides of the family. Yet still I am told on MN that there's no negative feeling towards CF folk and that we barely register in other people's thoughts.

I don't think there's any better example of being told you're a lesser human being than a firm belief that you are not entitled to pensions, NHS treatment etc.

I know I'm not meant to but I think some of these comments are hilarious. Especially the one about how can you be alive. I don't think I could stop myself from laughing at that.
I remember a woman being baffled by me saying I don't want children when I was younger. In that she really couldn't understand the words coming out of my mouth. Her reply was that I could never be a real woman without children, I would always be a child.
And then of course there's all the 'it's selfish to not want children ' . I would argue its more selfish to have children. We have them entirely for our own gratification (or worse, to look after us when we get old) they don't ask to be born. I actually do have children now so am presumably acceptable to my family (calling me selfish) or the 'not a real woman ' stranger I worked with once.

I don't think there's any better example of being told you're a lesser human being than a firm belief that you are not entitled to pensions, NHS treatment etc

Plus the 'everyone over 60 doesn't NEED more than one bedroom why don't we make them live in flats' comments. I'm weary of pointing out that if a govt can take the property/pensions/NHS entitlement from people you think shouldn't have it then a) that's not a government you want to live under and b) if they can take things from one section of the populace then they can take it from another.

As someone who has always been temperamentally single I didn't comment on the 'being single isn't worth living.' Mostly because I didn't want my head bitten off when I pointed out the (to me) considerable upsides.

OP has now determined that nobody without kids struggles on 40k-50k whereas all parents do.

GIVE ME BLEEDING STRENGTH.

MrsDanvers
I particularly enjoy the disconnect between only allowing us to live in small one-bedroom flats, and the conviction that we should be the primary caregivers for elderly parents, including having them move in with us.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain I stopped reading the squeezed middle thread after it started on about 'families.' I felt like raising my hand and jumping up and down to remind them that it's not just families feeling the pinch;

I'd have wanted to remind them that 'families' come in all shapes and sizes too - I consider me, DH and DDog a family! Just because you're single doesn't mean you don't have family (I know there will be some who don't of course)

I didn't read that thread (and won't, for my blood pressure's sake) but I work in an organisation with excellent maternity benefits - none of the parents want to recognise that I pay for that and won't benefit, when they're moaning about how I'm so much better off as I don't need to pay for childcare (I do pay almost as much for dog care btw! And also... that was the choices we made!)

CleverLilViper i have a thread on here literally titled Childfree get less but are expected to do more

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/childfree-mumsnetters/4825473-child-free-people-being-told-they-deserve-less-yet-being-expected-to-do-more

That whole squeezed middle thread is nuts- it’s basically just people screaming at each other about who is worst off.

Just posted this on the tax allowance thread. It was that that made me remember it.

Back in the late 1990s i was signing on (this was before minimum wage came in) and there were NO tax credits then UNLESS you had kids.
I saw jobs advertised that were £50 a WEEK (my rent was £48 then) and that was it. No top up UNLESS you had kids. But you try telling that to parents. At the time it was "why cant you take the job You dont have kids to worry about" Well i would have lost my flat.

And ive mentioned it on the boards and got gaslighted that it didnt happen

We’ve had “living alone is a choice” now.

Great, I’ll tell my widowed mother she needs to find a flatshare, and I’m sure flatmates would also love to live with me and my autistic needs.

You know whats coming next dont you. All single people and/or childfree should live in a HMO

That would be extra handy, because all the people with nothing better to do than provide childcare/antisocial working hours cover would be in the same place, so parents could just nip in and collect an assistant as and when needed.

Unpaid assistant, of course. Or better, make the assistant pay for the privilege!

Yes, we're now being told that it's a wildly inefficient use of resources for us to be occupying homes by ourselves.

Only unpaid assistants will be allowed a state pension. And possibly only if the kid we're caring for grows up to be a taxpayer because if not it'll probably be our fault.