I am a participant, and HUGE supporter, of the childfree movement–that is, the desire to never have kids. Needless to say, in an increasingly family-friendly society, such a stance is looked upon as favorably as rape support.
Let me state for the record that this is not meant to offend kids or their parents. We childfree folk know that there are plenty of kid-toting people out there who love their offspring and the whole experience of parenting, both good and bad. If you are good to both your kids and yourself, I and other childfree folk have zero problem with you; we will actually applaud you, even. See, you are what we refer to as “PNBs,” which stands for “Parents, Not Breeders.” See, isn’t that cool? You get your very own acronym!
Then there are “breeders.”
Breeders are those parents who often have no reasons for wanting kids; they do it because they feel that they “have” to, social pressure, keeping up with the Joneses (meaning they view their children as accessories rather than up-and-coming human beings), etc. Needless to say, breeders fall into one of two parenting extremes: the “helicopter” variety, who monitor anything and everything their kid does, state as fact that their kid can never do any wrong, and try to sue anyone and everyone who says differently. Right now, some breeder is planning on contacting her lawyer once he/she is done reading this paragraph.
The other extreme is just as commonplace: the “I don’t care” extreme. These are the people who let their kids run wild, don’t keep an eye on them at all, etc. Their kids grow up to be selfish, spoiled heathens who then spawn the next generation of the same.
Anyway…just so we’re clear: if you are not a breeder (and something like 99% of the folks I know with kids are PNBs), then you have nothing to worry about. You can give me all nine zillion reasons why I made a mistake, why I and everyone should procreate, blah blah blah. Save it. Go put it on a parenting board with others who will support your opinions. The more you put it on here, the more likely I’ll view you as a breeder, whether you’re one or not.
In life, we must do what suits US best before we can help others. We have to take care of OURSELVES first, no? Well, everyone is different; needs, wants, and desires vary from person to person. Some people want to practice the Catholic faith, some want to be Jewish. Some people want a heterosexual partner; others want a homosexual partner. Some like Coke, some like Pepsi. The combination of my life experience, opinions, and personal desires have resulted in my decision to keep kids out of my life forever. Such a lifestyle simply fails to register with me; I see myself as an Emperor of Japan before I do a father. Nothing you can say or do will convince me otherwise, I’m sorry. Even if there were some force out there strong enough to sway me in the geographic opposite direction, do you REALLY think it’ll be in a website comment list? Come on.
Posts on this page detail not only my reasons behind my decision, but also any and all opportunities I get to relish in it. You parents (and breeders) are allowed to be constantly proud of your parenthood…let me be proud of my childfreedom.
Grumpy Old Me
Explosion, honey? What explosion?
Happy Second Sunday in May!
“You Were a Kid Once”
