Why is a life without kids still not promoted as a route to happiness?

[OptimismvsRealism]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/15/parents-are-anxious-lonely-overwhelmingly-stressed-and-their-crisis-affects-everyone

Parenthood looks awful. Certainly worse than it needs to be in modern times but fundamentally wretched in many ways. An abandonment of the self.

Shouldn't we be telling young people not to have kids unless they really want to? Like we'd advise with anything so hard.

Where is the study for this?

Are people on this thread just trolling but poorly? Trolling should at least be fun!

Research would suggest otherwise.

I swear I now spend more time on this Board reporting goady parents than I do actually posting on it.

So weird as a woman to have no biological desire but each to their own x

Why is it weird? We're not all the same and don't have the same feelings. Some people don't want children. Why is it weird not to want the same things?

Creating another human being to satisfy your own need is the epitome of selfishness in my opinion.
Get yourself over to the Relationships board to see the amount of women - unmarried - who find themselves in a precarious situation when their guy who they financially rely on as they’ve given up work turns out to be a prick. Shafted on a stick.

It’s you’re btw.

Not all women rely on men financially.

Here you go OP

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/sep/16/childfree-no-kids-experience

Didn’t say they did. A lot do though.

There are people, who have grown up children, don’t see them, or it’s few and far between.So l think, there’s no guarantee having a child, children, will mean you’re not going to be lonely, when you’re elderly.Years ago, l use to work in residential care for the elderly, many didn’t get regular visits, it wasn’t unusual for residents to never have visits from their children.

But you just literally proved my point...

Literally so weird isn't it

You are both on a board for MNetters without children! There's plenty of boards on MN, that have nothing to do with being a parent. Wild I know!

It’s really not weird, which is a strange word to use, to get your point across.It’s a woman’s choice, just like men choose not too.
Some women, feel if they don’t meet a person, that they want to make a life with, then they’d rather not have children.

Is it?

I love sex but know plenty of women who don't. Everyone is different.

Hmm, that definitely sounds like, you are saying this.

In the same way that it’s nobody’s business but hers whether a woman continues a pregnancy, it’s nobody’s business but hers whether a woman starts a pregnancy.

Nothing needs normalising. If you’re surrounded by people who can’t handle your childless/childfree status, get better friends and/or don’t discuss it with people.

You are wanting the general populace to go against humankind’s raison d’être and normalise the deliberate ending of the human race, and then getting cross that it’s not happening. I don’t think it’s parents who have it wrong, personally…

If I thought and wanted to say ALL women rely on men financially I would say this. I don’t so I didn’t. It doesn’t ’sound’ like anything. It’s there in black and white. A lot of women do. That’s fact.

I didn't create another human being, I adopted. I made a deliberate choice to become a parent.

Can 100% understand and respect the choice of those making a different decision, whatever the reasons.

But it wasn't a 'craving' (which is a temporary desire). I was brought up to see children as a choice, not expected. There would have been a gap in my life without children, in a way there hasn't been a gap with being single.

Each to their own.

But apparently a lot do? which is a contradiction & a sweeping generalisation which doesn’t sense.

A lot do yes. I’ve never said otherwise so how can it be a contradiction? To be fair you’re not making much sense to me.

Spot on

@OptimismvsRealism no I'm not talking about desire for sex I'm talking about the desire to pro create

You are wanting the general populace to go against humankind’s raison d’être and normalise the deliberate ending of the human race, and then getting cross that it’s not happening. I don’t think it’s parents who have it wrong, personally…

Who is getting cross? Having kids to fulfil a need is a selfish act, I didn't say no one should have kids and therefore deliberately eliminate the human race...

Lot of stretching on this thread...