Best part of being childfree

[Mintgum]

Whats the best part of being childfree.
I chose not to have children knew from an early age i never wanted them.
But i have been ask why not whats so good not having them my reply was whats good with having them.
I like my life i like doing what i like i love my freedom.
I have no intrerest in schools finger painting teen dramas i also like sleep.
I dont have the stomach to be around them when they are eating either.
My sister didnt like my reply.
And told me im missing out on what love really feels like.
I replied with.
I'm really not missing out on anything.
You're the one that had kids in your late 40s and all you want is help.
And now im in the doghouse because i was rude.
My family all know dont ask me to baby sit because it won't happen.

@WandaFishy99 I had to go and wash my hands just reading that 🤣🤣

@JaninaDuszejko The first paragraph of your post made me so, so happy I don’t have kids. 😂🤢

Oh yes, the endless drudgery of being the unpaid childcare. Which also means that one's conversation becomes very..... limited 😂

Another thing I'd struggle to cope with is the noise - not just crying/tantrums but the very high pitched squealing/screaming children sometimes do when they're playing. Many is the time I have left a public place or public transport with loud children and thought 'thank goodness that racket isn't coming home with me'.

This post is perfect. There is an almost cult-like emphasis on "Family" for some people.
Families are just folk with whom we share some genetic code, to a greater or lesser extent. They are no more or less important than anyone else in the world. It is quite common for us to prioritise our friends over family, because friends are the people we have chosen to be in our lives.

Oh god yes.

I never wanted to play houses when i was small or pretend mummy games.
I liked talking to older people and books.
Ive never felt the need for children.
Never wanted them.
Never understood the whole name change either one second your penny the next you given the name mum for life well untill granchildren then given a new name you didnt ask for.
I do avoid children i just dont like the noise of them.
Random children and family children are all the same to me.
I dont click with them i find them boring tbh.
I sit at the back of the bus to avoid the mums with prams.
Hate passing schools at lunch time the smell makes me reach.
When they eat its gulping sniffing slurping talking with mouth full.
Just nothing appeals to me about children.
I find teens and children to be ungrateful and entitled just like their parents because the little angels cant do wrong.
I love my time mess free home go when i want my money is mine.
And i love my holidays in peace.

When people hear you say "I don't like children", I think they often mean you don't like them for the same reasons you'd take an exception to a specific adult. It's not the same thing. It's all of the things you list above, plus the questionable personal hygiene, the touching everything/hands/fingers everywhere, sticky this, smelly that, demanding to be picked up, cuddled, sit on your knee, the crying and wailing, the demands that you pay them 100% attention 100% of the time, trying to feign interest in whatever toy for 5 year olds they are currently obsessed with. The running around ceaselessly, getting into everything, getting under your feet, the mess left everywhere, food on the floor, food up the walls, food all over their faces, food all over you if they get anywhere near you...

Just no.

This post is perfect. There is an almost cult-like emphasis on "Family" for some people

And Governments!

Totally fair enough. That said I would cultivate a positive relationship with nieces and nephews and intimate they will inherit my house. The smart childfree clients I have do this. Nieces and nephews often massively step up if needed for a well liked aunt.

Well... There are no children here, for a start.

I have six nieces and nephews and I don't really notice or think about them much. It's alien to me when people talk about loving their nieces and nephews. I just don't like the company of children.

Same here. If I do see my friends' children I only do it for limited periods. They seem quite nice to me but I don't want to engage with children for any length of time

I think the majority of people are like this, with or without kids, unless they’re really child oriented. Other people’s children don’t interest me in the slightest. I always said the ‘cute’ kids dancing badly on the wedding dance floor are my nemesis. Yuck.

I thought this meant I wouldn’t enjoy having a child but I was completely wrong.

I would build a relationship with them when they are older.

To be fair I feel the same about dogs. Just leave me cold. But friends adore theirs

I thought this meant I wouldn’t enjoy having a child but I was completely wrong.

So we should add this to the poo & the migraines as things that women cite as benefits of not having kids but which you’re in a position to refute?

At the start of the thread, when talking about parents joining in, I said ‘At some point we’ll get a wide-eyed poster expressing her surprise and confusion that there are non-mums on Mumsnet, and a helpful one going through the lists & explaining that of course you can still do this, that & the other if you’ve got kids. Some don’t realise it’s the childfree board because it simply shows up in Active. Some talk about when they were ‘childfree’ - eg before they had kids. Some want us to understand that we’re missing out on Love.’

I must be psychic. Or experienced.

Well you're certainly in the minority. Vast vast majority of people feel pretty connected to their family...

This is what I really struggle with...why does wanting to be childfree mean you feel like this about wider family?

Absolutely. It does my head in.

People aren't autistic because they don't enjoy messy children and gross smells. This forum is obsessed with everyone being 'possibly autistic'. It's ridiculous.

Start a thread about it in AIBU, @Comedycook.

Being ‘childfree’ doesn’t mean that. People with children, without children, who can’t have children, who have given up their children and many other situations are ‘NC’ with their families (it’s all over MN just as a starting point) and many people in all those situations will be close to their family. Then there are others whose family have cut them out or live far away or have died and who knows what else. Family situations are all different and people who are childfree, childless, parents, whatever don’t all have the exact same experience as everyone else in their ‘group’.

To be fair the opening post mentions relatives children and loads of other posts are from people saying they want nothing to do with their relatives children. It's just horrible. I can see why lots of people don't want their own children, but I can't understand why they would be so cold towards kids in their family. I know lots of childfree people who absolutely adore their nieces and nephews...

I’m child free and love my nieces and nephews but many people have grown up in abusive families or have complicated and difficult dynamics- I can see how they don’t want to spend time with their families. You can’t make an assumption about all child free people any more than you can about all mums or any other group.

Ridiculous take. No. I’m not autistic. I’m egregious, an extrovert, thrive in a senior career that relies on internal and external networking. I am hugely giving to my partner and friends/family members (who happen to be adults). I just don’t want to clean up anyone else’s shit/vomit/snot or be pawed all bloody day.

I am diagnosed autistic.