Do you ever see things in films/TV that make you think “thank god I don’t have children.”?

[KimberleyClark]

I’ve just started watching A Man On The Inside on Netflix. Starring Ted Danson as a retired college professor. He’s got a daughter who keeps telling him to stop pottering about and doing the crossword and do something meaningful with his life. I ‘m retired and thought “thank fuck I don’t have children bossing me about and telling me how to live my life”!

I saw that, I loved it!

I love outnumbered but I could use it as birth control 😂 Also everybody loves Raymond, the middle and my family.

Any horror movie really😂 It's always kids there when evil starts.

Zombie and disaster movies when people die saving kid who simply could not listen to "stay here".

Call the midwife - yes i know it's set in the 50s/60s but all those traumatic births

Everyday I see poor parenting and the resulting, badly behaved children, I don't need TV or film! They're bloody everywhere nowadays.

Pretty much all of them tbh. Currently watching Day of the Jackal (which is amazing). The female lead is a badass MI6 agent trying to track down a top assassin (no spoilers) and all she gets is constant grief and guilt tripping from her husband and daughter. Fuck that!

More in real life, really.

Home Alone was on last night. Imagine how lovely that holiday would have been, just a couple of adults, adulting in France... (not the point, I know)... 😱

Catastrophe. The decline of the relationship was scary!

Side note - I LOVE Rob Delaney

The film 'Parenthood' 😃

Not really so much film and TV but so much I read on MN reaffirms my decision 😭😭😭

I don't watch anything that features children. As PP have said, real ones are completely off putting. Even the well-behaved ones.

Definitely more in real life. The more I hear about my friends being at the beck and call of their daughter and grandchildren the more thankful I am that I don't have to put up with that.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything - however heartwarming it was supposed to be - that made me wish I had children.

I don’t watch TV, I prefer audiobooks but I don’t usually listen to stories with kids in.

I was out with friends & their 4-year-old yesterday, lovely child, we all had a good time & they’re very excited about their next baby due in the spring. But I didn’t feel remotely envious.

Similar to a PP - I actively avoid tv/ films/ comedians that revolve around parenthood and pregnancy (eg Motherland - which is a shame as I love Diane Morgan in other roles!).
you would hope that tv would be moving more towards a more diverse range of older characters in tv/ film and not just the typical grandma/ old person role where they are nagged at by their adult children - I really enjoy only murders in the building and the cross generational friendship between Mabel, Charles and Oliver 🥰

Agree with others, I avoid things centred around parenthood and pregnancy.. When TV writers get bored with a show and start introducing pregnancies as a way of spicing it up (looking at you, Grey's Anatomy) I tend to switch off. It just doesn't interest me and the message is always the same anyway (it's the hardest job in the world but nothing will ever compare to it and every woman was incomplete beforehand).

I tend to think "thank God" way more in real life, but it's really rude so I don't admit to it in real life!

@TheBluntTurtle I love Slow Horses for many reasons, but a big one is the portrayal of middle-aged women without them being in a motherly role. Kristen Scott Thomas as M15’s “second desk” and Saskia Reeves as Katherine Standish, a PA and everywoman. Highly highly recommend!

Gosh, I see Bianca as a dangerously amoral character who has bodies piling up all around her, who is happy to use torture (in fact her daughter sees her torturing someone), who does completely despicable things in the course of her job, and who is unable to keep her home and teenage daughter safe from criminals. And if I were her daughter (won’t be more explicit due to spoilers, but you know the incident I mean), I’d be completely frightened and horrified. If I were her DH, whose academic career she sneers at, I’d be pointing out that I hadn’t caused anyone’s death that day.

(I mean, I quite like the series, but it seems pretty clear the viewer is being encouraged to find the ‘forces of good’ repellent and to root for the Jackal, all of whose targets are awful…)

Blimey, I'd never heard of this series, and nothing would make me watch it after reading these posts! The film was quite enough.

It’s so different to the 70s film with Edward Fox that I genuinely don’t know why they used the same name. Other than the assassin having the same code name and bring a brilliant sniper, I literally don’t think there’s a single other point in common.

It sure doesn't sound like it! I mean the whole point of the story was that it was a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle ...

This. And the pregnancy storyline is always the same - panic at finding out, indecision, hearing the heartbeat at the scan and deciding they can’t have an abortion and are having this baby no matter what.

I do actually like Motherland though. The kids are just sort of there in the background so there’s no cringy interactions with them.

Funny, I’m watching Black Doves at the moment. It’s brilliant and I won’t spoil it, but it is a bit irritating that Keira Knightley nips off right in the middle of the action because the babysitter called. Even the other characters commented.

Yes, this has replaced DeGaulle with a far-right German politician and his son, and a tech gazillionaire about to launch some new tech that will expose dark money worldwide (played repellently well by the actor who played Dodi Fayed in The Crown).

On the issue of TV international assassins and spies and their offspring, I can confirm that the Jackal has one of the most unrealistic tv babies ever, even given Sally from Coronation St’s offspring who were perennially invisibly ‘playing upstairs’ for years at a time The Jackal’s baby is to be found playing quietly on his bedroom in the early hours, while his father sneaks around shooting people and his mother broods atmospherically by the pool…

Gosh, I see Bianca as a dangerously amoral character who has bodies piling up all around her, who is happy to use torture (in fact her daughter sees her torturing someone), who does completely despicable things in the course of her job, and who is unable to keep her home and teenage daughter safe from criminals. And if I were her daughter (won’t be more explicit due to spoilers, but you know the incident I mean), I’d be completely frightened and horrified. If I were her DH, whose academic career she sneers at, I’d be pointing out that I hadn’t caused anyone’s death that day.

I'm definitely not trying to excuse the torture stuff but surely it's MI6s responsibility to make sure her and her family are safe? Anyways I won't keep debating incase we spoil it for anyone! The point is her life would be a whole lot easier if she didn't have a kid and a husband constantly nagging her about her job.