Do you want Children?

[alarcoz]

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

[Artina89]

No I don't want to have kids and I am unsure that I ever will. I am only 22 and I can be quite self absorbed.

 

[Feralcentaur]

I may like being around children, and they may like me but I would be a horrible parent.
And the world is over populated enough and I'm not exactly the most genetically superior around and relationships seem awfully complicated so I'll just let my genetic legacy die off with me...

 

[JoJo]

Yes, I do, 2-3 of them actually. Why is it selfish to not adopt? Not that the idea ever bothered me, but it still isn't my Child, it's just someones else's child I just happen to be paying for.

They wouldn't be your child biologically but once they are adopted they would become your child in every other respect, so it wouldn't be "someone else's child". I wouldn't mind adopting a daughter one day and if I did she wouldn't be anyone elses child but mine! (except my partner...)

 

[Ladette]

I can barely take care of myself, I couldn't deal with children full time. I've got 6 nieces/nephews, i'm more than fine being that crazy aunt that parents fear and kids adore. It's just not something I plan on doing.

If I ever did get amnesia and decide I wanted kids i'd adopt, the thought of being pregnant terrifies me. My parents shares that sentiment.

 

[Blue_vision]

I'd like to adopt children, maybe have one if theoretical significant other really wanted to, and then adopt another. I feel like I'd be at least a moderately good father (which is something to say about fathers in this day and age.) It'd be cool/fun.

 

[Vern5]

I'm going to go ahead and assume that we can mostly agree that the world is ridiculously overpopulated right now. People are dying in the streets. There isn't enough food to go around. Yet, for every plague, famine and genocide you hear about the world population still seems to be rising or at least maintaining itself.

So, I've got to know, do any of you want children and, if so, why?

Its a strange thing to ask people. There are many in the world who just go through life the way other people are (a process known as Social Validation) and readily cling to the idea that life has a specific progression. Some people get married and have children, not because they really want to, but because they figure its about time they did. I know everyone talks about "oh, it was the greatest moment of my life when I saw my newborn boy/girl" and I can't argue with that. But at the same time I can say that the idea of bringing even more children into the world instead of adopting the nearly endless sea of orphaned young sounds selfish. Also, my childhood was pretty bad. Not that I was ever starving but, emotionally, that stuff sucked. I don't think I could consciously put another human being through the same experience I had growing up. But, hey, thats just me.

So how about it? Do you want kids? State your reasoning (Full credit will not be awarded to partial answers of Yes or No).

EDIT - Yes, I do realize there are two other threads that are roughly like this but I feel ashamed about grave digging.

You can assume that if you like, but you'd be wrong. The world is not ridiculously overpopulated. Selected regions of it are. People are only dying in the streets in large numbers in regions where the food supply chain has broken down, either through incompetent or deliberate actions. Regional warlords, regional anarchy, and regional oppression: these cause hunger, not a worldwide lack of food.

As for "bringing another person into the world": First I'd like to say that if everyone your message can reach stopped reproducing today, the only people left on earth after a few decades would be the people who are currently reproducing like mad despite abject poverty. So pleading with literate people who are wealthy enough to have access to the internet to stop breeding is about as useful as pissing in your own face. That's not going to stem population growth. It's just going to encourage a situation where a greater proportion of the population is illiterate and impoverished.

Second, I'm relatively successful by most standards. So is my wife. If I'm going to work hard enough to be a good parent (and it is hard work) I'd rather do that to help propagate our own DNA, rather than work tirelessly to support the continued propagation of the DNA of someone too stupid, too careless, or too heartless to avoid reproducing despite their inability or unwillingness to care for their own offspring. Most children adopted internationally are not institutionalized due to parental death, but due to abandonment. Many institutions prohibit asking the situation leading to institutionalization prior to adoption. In places that allow such inquiries, stories told by the personnel are frequently false. In the cases of abandoned children (the majority) the parents who abandoned them are pieces of shit. Why should I take the chance of making myself the permanent legal guardian of someone with the "piece of shit gene"? I'm being facetious, but seriously: Why do those people's DNA deserve my efforts? I'm relatively altruistic in most respects, but that's where I draw the line. I gave at the office, man. I admire people who have that level of devotion, but that's just not me.

So that's why I've decided to reproduce rather than adopt someone else's unwanted, abused child. Is it selfish? You bet. Natural selection is inherently selfish, and I won't apologize for behaving the way that every K-selection animal in the history of the planet has.

You're genes are better than another person's genes because their children are up for adoption? I don't know but that sounds really egotistical.

What about children who need foster parents because their parents died due to circumstances beyond their control? Not every child is left without parents because of some inherent fault in the parent. There is a possibility that the majority of orphans were abandoned by neglectful or immature parents but to base your entire opinion of the orphan demographic upon that idea and willingly proclaim them all to be genetically inferior... doesn't that sound a little heartless? And to look upon these children as collections of genetic material instead of human beings...

Look, there's no way to stem the amount of mistakes among the human gene pool. But do the abandoned children really have to suffer for their parents faults?

 

[Mr S]

I'm going to go ahead and assume that we can mostly agree that the world is ridiculously overpopulated right now. People are dying in the streets. There isn't enough food to go around. Yet, for every plague, famine and genocide you hear about the world population still seems to be rising or at least maintaining itself.

So, I've got to know, do any of you want children and, if so, why?

Its a strange thing to ask people. There are many in the world who just go through life the way other people are (a process known as Social Validation) and readily cling to the idea that life has a specific progression. Some people get married and have children, not because they really want to, but because they figure its about time they did. I know everyone talks about "oh, it was the greatest moment of my life when I saw my newborn boy/girl" and I can't argue with that. But at the same time I can say that the idea of bringing even more children into the world instead of adopting the nearly endless sea of orphaned young sounds selfish. Also, my childhood was pretty bad. Not that I was ever starving but, emotionally, that stuff sucked. I don't think I could consciously put another human being through the same experience I had growing up. But, hey, thats just me.

So how about it? Do you want kids? State your reasoning (Full credit will not be awarded to partial answers of Yes or No).



EDIT - Yes, I do realize there are two other threads that are roughly like this but I feel ashamed about grave digging.

Yes, but not quite yet if you don't mind.
I think 17 is a little young to start having kids.
Ask me again in a couple of years ok?

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Don't know, I don't even know what I'm going to do for a career. Let the time come to me.

 

[Vern5]

I'm going to go ahead and assume that we can mostly agree that the world is ridiculously overpopulated right now. People are dying in the streets. There isn't enough food to go around. Yet, for every plague, famine and genocide you hear about the world population still seems to be rising or at least maintaining itself.

So, I've got to know, do any of you want children and, if so, why?

Its a strange thing to ask people. There are many in the world who just go through life the way other people are (a process known as Social Validation) and readily cling to the idea that life has a specific progression. Some people get married and have children, not because they really want to, but because they figure its about time they did. I know everyone talks about "oh, it was the greatest moment of my life when I saw my newborn boy/girl" and I can't argue with that. But at the same time I can say that the idea of bringing even more children into the world instead of adopting the nearly endless sea of orphaned young sounds selfish. Also, my childhood was pretty bad. Not that I was ever starving but, emotionally, that stuff sucked. I don't think I could consciously put another human being through the same experience I had growing up. But, hey, thats just me.

So how about it? Do you want kids? State your reasoning (Full credit will not be awarded to partial answers of Yes or No).



EDIT - Yes, I do realize there are two other threads that are roughly like this but I feel ashamed about grave digging.

Yes, but not quite yet if you don't mind.
I think 17 is a little young to start having kids.
Ask me again in a couple of years ok?

Absolutely Not! I demand you start breeding immediately!!!

 

[Mr S]

I would like to have kids someday. The wierd thing is, I have plenty of names for daughters, but only one or two for sons.

How about Max?

Seriously though, what is it with women having a bunch of names already for their hypothetical children? I've actually met a girl (16) and she has a complete notebook full of them!

You have to admit that's a bit crazy.

 

[Mr S]

I'm going to go ahead and assume that we can mostly agree that the world is ridiculously overpopulated right now. People are dying in the streets. There isn't enough food to go around. Yet, for every plague, famine and genocide you hear about the world population still seems to be rising or at least maintaining itself.

So, I've got to know, do any of you want children and, if so, why?

Its a strange thing to ask people. There are many in the world who just go through life the way other people are (a process known as Social Validation) and readily cling to the idea that life has a specific progression. Some people get married and have children, not because they really want to, but because they figure its about time they did. I know everyone talks about "oh, it was the greatest moment of my life when I saw my newborn boy/girl" and I can't argue with that. But at the same time I can say that the idea of bringing even more children into the world instead of adopting the nearly endless sea of orphaned young sounds selfish. Also, my childhood was pretty bad. Not that I was ever starving but, emotionally, that stuff sucked. I don't think I could consciously put another human being through the same experience I had growing up. But, hey, thats just me.

So how about it? Do you want kids? State your reasoning (Full credit will not be awarded to partial answers of Yes or No).



EDIT - Yes, I do realize there are two other threads that are roughly like this but I feel ashamed about grave digging.

Yes, but not quite yet if you don't mind.
I think 17 is a little young to start having kids.
Ask me again in a couple of years ok?

Absolutely Not! I demand you start breeding immediately!!!

Well I don't mind the breeding part. That part I like.
I just don't like it when there are some actual... results.
Not quite yet.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'd like to in the future, maybe ten years time or so. Hopefully by then I'll have a stable job, a loving partner and a bit more mental fortitude for dealing with it.

I think I'd do an mediocre to okay job now, but just out of uni either I'd be working a very low paid job that barely scraped by, or I'd be away from home all the time. Like I say better to have done the groundwork first.

 

[DoctorPhil]

Yes, I want kids, but I'm lesbian, so I'd probably just adopt. There's plenty of spare kids in the world, I don't need to go that far out of my way to make my own (sperm donors, artificial insemination... no thanks). I'd want the child to be as young as possible though, so she (I assume I'll only have daughters) would feel more like mine.

And her name will be Revan.

That's an awesome name, I'll have to remember than one if I ever get kids. Did you think it up yourself?

OT: No I don't think so, as I feel I'd be wasting my life on it even though the world doesn't need more kids. Getting kids also appeals to me on a level though, so maybe one day I'll change my mind.

 

[sageoftruth]

I really don't know. My first thought would be "HELL NO!" I gave up a future of teaching because I knew I couldn't stand kids. I pretty much can't stand anyone who resembles me in an earlier stage of development. The sight of parenting does not look pleasant, and when I see people going nuts over a baby, I can't help but visualize it as a bunch of flies hovering towards an electric light.
The reason I'm not sure is because I once felt the same way about dogs, and once my parents got one without telling me, I warmed up to her quickly. As a result, I wonder if a baby would do the same. However, we all know you can't back out once you have had a baby, and I'm not much of a risk-taker.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I occasionally have a halfhearted kind of yearning to reproduce, but I usually manage to crush it quite fast. It would not be good for me, the world or the child. May consider adopting, but I would much prefer to 'sponsor' a child or a charitable foundation. Also, the temptation of a relationship with two full-time earners, minus the financial drain that is a child, sounds amazing. Still, even during the last pregnancy-scare I had, I felt somewhat..odd. I fucking hate instinct.

 

[thylasos]

I vary between thinking I'd be a terrible father and realising I'm actually quite a nice person with an ability to teach.

 

[Kuroji]

No. Naturally however, I am often told that I am wrong and just don't realise it. I am just not very maternal.

Seriously though, what is it with women having a bunch of names already for their hypothetical children?

I have a long list of names for future pets.. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I would like to have kids someday. The wierd thing is, I have plenty of names for daughters, but only one or two for sons.

How about Max?

Seriously though, what is it with women having a bunch of names already for their hypothetical children? I've actually met a girl (16) and she has a complete notebook full of them!

You have to admit that's a bit crazy.

I'm male and I do that, albeit to a much lesser extent.

 

[Biodeamon]

Yes, but only to right the wrongs of my own upbringings, teach my kids the correct way of living(not what this illogical society thinks), and pass on my genetic legacy past my death.