what is the point of a life without children?

[Mud]

having a morbid moement and wondere how i would feel if I didn't have my 3 for some reason as am too old to have any more

from this perspective fo having kids i really dont see what point there would be in going on if i no longer had them and had no chance of having others

which makes me wonder what is the point of life withoug kids?

disagree dizzy - the world of finance isn't worth the paper its printed on

Oh Mud I don't want to go on a big psycholgy lecture and bore everyone to tears but basically psychonalsyis is a person in therapy who mainly free associates, the therapist analysis is Freudian in concept, ie you weren't breastfed so you weren't nurtured and I could go on and on but I hope you catch my drift.

But Floatinginspace you could have had a million experiences that would have taught you about yourself: travelling the world, working in a third-world country, losing your loved one to an illness, being a carer for your parents... all these things teach us about life. Parents don't have the monopoly on self-awareness and insight.

ps apols for typos keyboard is jammed.

mahamai i aske dyou what the quote meant to you not for a definition of psychoanalaysis / psychology / psychobable

I agree with morningpaper in the main

mud- what's your pension invested in then? maybe you've gone ethical?

Oops sorry mud the being a mother thing has my cells fried

What the quote means to me is that we can never honestly say a hundred per cent, how we would have been, as it didn't happen in such a way, or how we will be in the future in such a way. I mean yeah sure I had notions of working in third world countries pre kids but I'm also a very impulsive so and so, I could of easily ended up a drop out hippy in Goa. Point is I don't know and and never will.

and I still don't see why having children is so 'worthy'

pepetuation of the species answering the biological imperative to have your genes continue to be passed down
an emotional rounding out enabling you to finally realise what it means to haev someone else more importnat than you someone who you would truly sacrifice for - life, body parts, lifestyle

Maybe I can still be drop out hippy in Goa once the kids are gone!

What i find sad in my own personal experience (before i get jumped on ) is that i was so young when i had my first child that i will never know what I would have been like as an adult without children. I would have liked to experience that, it's something i feel envious of sometimes iyswim I am glad I had my children young as I will spend longer with them (hopefully) and I have more energy etc etc so many reasons but I do wonder what I would have done with my life had I not have had children so young.

I have learnt so much, who knows how much I would have learnt without children though? I may have travelled, gained more work experience etc but who knows it's not the path i have taken I am happy with my life it is too short for regrets i am enjoying life now though it is a struggle sometimes I am looking forward to being older too so that i can have some freedom, enjoy travelling and read lots of books etc

Ok answer this then mud, do you honestly think that by virtue of being a woman you should have children......

There are so many women that should not have kids, ok we were given wombs but sadly some women should but do have children, you only have to look at the horrific cases of abuse and if you want to look after someone well hey there's no shortage of agencies crying out for loving people to care for kids that have been abused or neglected by their mums.

should not have

Maybe I'm not mother-material, but much though I love my children and my life would be unbearable if I were to lose them, I don't find it hard to imagine a very different but equally interesting and fulfilling life in which I never had them. Good job too really considering that I spent the first 20 years of my adult life without them and, if all goes to plan, I will probably spend the last 20 years of my adult life still loving them, but looking for intellectual, spiritual and emotional fulfilment elsewhere. Hell, the last thing the DDs would want in their 30s is a mother who found her life empty beyond them.

extra dimension...of course.

point of living....not for me.

custardo take your point about some people learning compassion through motherhood, but just as many unlearn it, and become rather....well...right wing in a 'look after me and mine way' post children too.

i think by virute of being a human one should aim to procreate - if not procreate then to raise a child - if not raise a child then be instrumental in teh raiisng of a child or the caring of another human being -

i think as a yong adult i was hedonistic and self-obsesed and self-absrobed and i am far more acutely aware of my mortality and the value of life and responsibilty of a poisiton in society since being invovled with children

there are always exceptions

"answering the biological imperative to have your genes continue to be passed down"

Nope. A quick survey of the quality of my genetic material (numerical dyslexia, a propensity towards senile dementia, a long history of fecklessness and stumpy legs) and rational thought easily surpassed any biological imperative.

fecklenseness and stumpy legs - well iget your point then rofl

Mud you said that the 'vast majority of childless people do not 'contrubute to society' in the way that makes them worthy and with point'

but I just don't see that amongst our childless friends

do you know many people without children?

Yeah and maybe we would all like to live in a postman pat village Sorry mud in an ideal world that's dandy but sadly we are not in that world. We are in a world where children in India are left on the street to die, Brazil, Africa, kids in china being aborted because of the one kid rule and God knows I could go on, or how about closer to home where young girls out of lonliness go out to have children because of living in disadvantaged areas and little or no prospects of an education or couples having children to stick plaster a relationship. Having a child does not define happiness.