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The Proud Non-breeder
Topic Started: May 31 2015, 06:03 AM (176 Views)
Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/05/i-was-a-proud-non-breeder-i-changed-my-mind.html
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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brenda
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..............
When a twenty-something tells me she doesn't want to have children, I suggest that she is making the right decision for now, and that she can revisit the topic over time. No need to decide everything in your life during your twenties. Don't box yourself in at that age.
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
A most diplomatic response. And true.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
A guy who used to be a cartoonist for the Baltimore City Paper wrote an essay about his own decision to not have children. But it's a hell of a lot better than this article because he spends over a dozen pages trying to explore all possible sides to the issue.

This is cherry-picking, but these are some of his more salient points:

Quote:
 
People on both sides of the reproductive divide tend to be self-congratulatory about choices that are, let's be honest, completely beyond their conscious control, like people who've inherited wealth thinking they deserve it.

The childless—or childfree, as the more aggressive ones like to be called—like to claim that they're living more fully conscious lives than those brainless docile hordes helplessly breeding at the dictates of their DNA. They cite the imminent threats of overpopulation, global warming, peak oil, and don't let's forget, nuclear war, still very much on the table—all of which are perfectly valid and persuasive reasons for not procreating, and none of which do I believe for one second is anyone's real reason. They're often times less obvious than those of parents, but I have no doubt they're just as unconscious and primal.

Parents need to somehow justify the lives of sputum, tuition, and sarcastic abuse to which they've condemned themselves, and so make their own grandiose claims about parenthood's ineffable fulfillments and beneficent effects—that one cannot possibly know what real love is unless you've had children, that it is life's ultimate purpose, et cetera. Reproduction as raise d'ętre has always seemed to me to beg the whole question of existence. If the ultimate purpose of your life is your children, what's the purpose of your children's lives? To have your grandchildren? Isn't anyone's life ultimately meaningful in itself? If not, what's the point of propagating it ad infinitum? After all, 0 x infinity = 0. It would seem a pretty low-rent purpose that's shared with viruses and bacteria.



FWIW, I'm in my early thirties and with all certainty I don't want kids as of the present moment.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
I find this woman to be completely obnoxious. The only thing more ridiculous than her reasoning for not being a "breeder" was her reasoning for having a child.

and now she's created another her. Lord help us all.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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brenda
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..............
It's all good, Aqua, because you have time galore yet.

Yeah, her article wasn't deep, but at least she owned up to a change of position. Not everyone has the guts to do that in print.
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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brenda
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..............
Luke's Dad
May 31 2015, 08:43 AM
I find this woman to be completely obnoxious. The only thing more ridiculous than her reasoning for not being a "breeder" was her reasoning for having a child.

and now she's created another her. Lord help us all.
Yeah, she's plenty annoying. Her BS was a little deep in much of her story. That was the only part that was deep. :lol2:
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
On might say she has shallowness of great depth.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Even the first sentence tipped it off. Anyone who calls writing an article "penning" one without sarcasm or irony is pretty much full of themselves.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
Yeah especially since she probably typed it.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
brenda
May 31 2015, 08:45 AM
It's all good, Aqua, because you have time galore yet.
And it's totally okay if I never change my mind, right? :wink:
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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brenda
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..............
Aqua Letifer
May 31 2015, 10:37 AM
brenda
May 31 2015, 08:45 AM
It's all good, Aqua, because you have time galore yet.
And it's totally okay if I never change my mind, right? :wink:
Yes, it's all okay.
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Aqua Letifer
May 31 2015, 10:37 AM
brenda
May 31 2015, 08:45 AM
It's all good, Aqua, because you have time galore yet.
And it's totally okay if I never change my mind, right? :wink:
Until we tell you otherwise, sure. :sword:
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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