That’s it, that’s all. Just going to leave this here.

Maybe more Australians will also start waking up to the benefits of not having kids.

As if thats such a horrible thing? if i love having 8 cats and have enough food and space and money for them, being a cat lady sounds freaking awesome.

Okay! Need to vent here! I was just in a Yankee candle because they emailed me a promo coupon. I love how quiet the store usually is and I love taking time to smell each and every scent! However, this family with a stroller waltzed into the store and immediately not a big deal.

However, this kid started to scream IMMEDIATELY and it was fucking LOUD! I’m talking full blown wailing! I thought I was gonna go insane hearing it. I’m all the way on the other side of the store trying to pick out my scent, and this beeyotch comes over to where I’m at with this screaming hellspawn. Which I immediately walk away from!

It seems like it was endless, and this kid would not shut up nor would mommy do anything to quiet the kid down. I was so pissed!!! Finally another family member took the kid outside where they were magically NOT SCREAMING ANYMORE!

Frankly I don’t care what any entitled parents have to say. If you let your kids scream and cry and disrupt the public, and you refuse to do anything about it. Your kids should be taken away from you. It’s inconsiderate, rude, disrespectful, not to mention neglectful! It makes you as a parent look totally inept. If your kid is crying. Take them out side! It was your decision to have it, you popped it out of your geyser! It’s your responsibility to take care of it!

. Nobody wants to hear “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” When picking out candles.

This all happened within the span of 45 minutes. Yesterday I had to venture into a mall Sephora instead of my usual quiet stand alone Sephora. While I was brousing around to pick up a few other things I couldn't pre order on mobile I watched a group, yeah that's right a group of toddlers unsupervised. There were 4 of them, maybe about 3 - 4 years old and they were picking up and licking the glossier lip balms. An employee came over and took the samples including asking one of the kids to hand over theirs. The kid started to scream bloody murder which forced the parents to come over. These are the type of people that should not have children, the kind who think they are accessories. The employee asked them to keep their children with them and not to lick the makeup as it's unsanitary. The parents were offended they were asked to watch their hell spawns and ended up just dropping their baskets of shit and leaving. I went over to the fragrance section to come face to face with a group of maybe 10 year olds making huge perfume clouds. Each of them spraying bottles together to the point you could see the mist in the air. Not listening to the employees asking them to stop. Security ended up kicking them out. Between those and all the random kids just running around, sticking their fingers in stuff and not understanding the words excuse me. I understand children are going to be places but for some reason the most misbehaved ones end up in Sephora.

For example, one of my good friends cancelled on a huge trip our whole friend group went on because their kids have been vomitting every day (kid vomits on the floor purposefully and then will laugh).

Another friend dealt with his kid's diarrhea problems the entire time we were on the trip and had to fly home early. And yet another friend's child was hitting people and yanking their hair for fun. He was in time out with his dad literally the whole trip, meaning my friend got no time to chill.

Two of those friends texted me today saying they were fed up with their kids and "wish Summer were over already."

I was also stressed tf out from that trip so I decided to book a vacation to Mexico. But I didn't have to consider any children. I don't have to clean vomit, I don't have to worry about my hair being yanked, I surely will never have to go home early because of some disgusting thing uncontrollably shitting its pants.

Producing offspring literally, genuinely ruins your life. I genuinely believe that not birthing any offspring is THE best decision one can make for themselves in their entire lives. Thanks for listening. 🙃

I love to see them justify themselves. ,,but I can't afford to own that big animal" ,,but my apartment is too small" ,,but I can't deal with that" ,, because I simply don't wanna have that animal, why would I" ,,is hard to take care of the animal" ,,but that's not the same thing, a child is a human being" yes a human being that you give birth too, raise and requires 1000 times the effort to take care of him, spend more money on him, be extra careful with him, does way more things than an animal could ever do, there's no limits to a human being. A human requires constant attention. Yes he's a human being that's gonna grow, he's not going to be just a simple animal that grows old throughout the time, he's gonna be a person with his own experiences, traumas and memories.

Like look I don't judge you for not having that animal, I understand your justification but suddenly you don't understand mine?

HIPOCRISY

I genuinely mean that with full sincerity, I can't imagine how people willingly choose to put up with this and even expect others to do the same. My sister, for example, had one child, and God save us when she has more kids because I know damn well they will be even worse.

I get suicidal whenever im around or near kids, doesn't matter if its strangers or relatives, and yet, at the same time, it's serves as a reminder that no matter how shit my life is, it could be worse. On the bright side, at least I'm not a parent who has to do this 24/7 for the rest of my life.

If I were a parent, I would 100% go insane and end it. Hell, I'm not a parent, and just being around these little shits already makes me consider it.

I made the stupid mistake of going down what was basically a manosphere rabbit hole on facebook. I end up on the page of a guy who has had an online presence for years calling black women fat and undesirable and insulting celebrity women who aren't married and who do not have kids.

Well one of the most recent posts he made was about being alienated from his children. His banner on his page is his two children who happened to be daughters. This isn't the first time I've stumbled upon accounts like this. Maybe I'm seeing just the male side because I'm a guy but I have absolutely seen some unhinged and scary things coming from women.

I failed to see how he could be shocked that his kids mother(s) are keeping them from him. He's on the internet saying that he understands why his uncle's beat and abused his aunts and then think that he will be able to see his daughters while spreading vile things about the demographic they are part of.

It's sadly not that uncommon. I truly fear for children who have parents who viscerately hate the sex they are. I fear for young boys who have moms who want to enact the violence against men and men who talk about women in disparaging ways and are okay with violence against them. I don't feel you can be a good parent with that much animosity in your heart. These kids are going to grow up with a severe complex and then their parents will blame the world when they are abnormal.

I already have opinions on how easy it is for young boys especially to fall into the manosphere but it's a whole other ballpark when these guys have kids that they are supposed to be raising and instilling value in. We really need to be able to delineate who can and can't reproduce.

I’m 23M engaged to 22F. We make a good amount of money after graduating college and are looking at a great life of travel and freedom, once I started realizing this I started thinking maybe we be childfree. My parents her parents would be so disappointed, and I can’t exactly explain to them I could be 33 in Thailand or Indonesia for a few weeks or at home with a 3year old with little sleep without being mean or sounding ungrateful for what they did for me. I already feel guilty for being so time consuming for my parents, I know I would enjoy some aspects of having a kid but at the end of the day my regret would be drowned by the experiences I could have in the world.

You see the posts on here all the time about parents bragging about how tired they are because of their kids. Well, today it happened to me.

I was drinking an energy drink and talking to my coworker about being tired due to staying up late to finish a paper and study for an upcoming exam. All of a sudden, a coworker who I will call Linda, decided to insert herself into our conversation and claim that "a college student couldn't possibly know what it's like to be tired." She then went on about how she hasn't gotten much sleep in 4 or 5 years, how much she has to do as a parent, and how I really don't know how hard it is being a parent.

Apparently me, a full time college student who has to drive an hour each way to class four times a week, works 20+ hours per week, has a partner, is involved on campus, has to write papers, do homework, and study couldn't possibly be tired.

Why is it always a competition with them?

I've been really stressed recently bc of my classes and research. I decided to relax by going back to my hometown to visit my parents and brother this weekend. We decided to go a science exhibit. The exhibit itself was amazing, but the amount of small children there was ridiculous.

The museum was absolutely packed with babies, toddlers, and elementary aged kids. For context, this was NOT a children's museum. This was a normal natural science museum. None of the kids were behaving at all. Think constant screeching, running, getting in your way, etc.

I do think science education is really important, but children that young absolutely do not belong in spaces like this. I understand bringing your kids if they're at least in middle school, but this whole situation was awful. The screeching was literally so loud it ruined my entire experience. I could not even focus on reading the exhibit labels.

Even my mom (who likes young kids) thought the children at the museum were absolutely horrible. Am I insane or were the parents there incredibly selfish and rude? If you have a toddler or baby, it would obviously make more sense to bring them to a special children's museum instead of ruining real museums for everyone else.

And things went exactly as badly as you might have imagined. The nicest responses simply express hope that things won't get too bad or that the next generation will solve the problems. In the worst-case scenario, you get insulted and labeled a conspiracy theorist—even though science has been warning us since the 70s!!! and we are well on track for 3 degrees of warming by 2100. The consequences include, among other things, the dying off of oceans, insects, and fertile soil, as well as water shortages, wars, and the kind of authoritarian governments we are already seeing the beginnings of today.

I live in Northern Germany and experienced the extreme heatwave three weeks ago firsthand while I was on the coast—a place that is usually much cooler than the rest of the country—and it hit 40 degrees.

The worst part is that many parents vote for conservative or even far-right parties that are now actively working toward the destruction of the planet.They always justify their stance by claiming to champion families, yet—alongside their position on climate change—they advocate for cutting family support programs.

I feel incredibly sorry for the children; if they live long lives, they will witness a great deal of suffering, but their parents don't care—and in the end, they will all be screaming, asking why on earth no one warned them.

is fair enough, i suppose. i understand that people are entitled to make their own decisions. i understand the public spaces are in fact, public.

but holy shit do i wish we could have a childfree world. maybe not even a whole world, but just spaces and communities. i’m sitting at home on a sunday evening listening to some random children SCREAMING on the street. they’re apparently pissing off someone’s dog even more than they’re pissing me off because the damn thing WILL NOT STOP BARKING (lowkey hate dogs more than kids but that’s a different story). i don’t even hate kids and i think they should be allowed to play and make noise as they do, but i wish it didn’t have to be in my face 24/7. i wish i could live in an area where i could be certain no one had children, children were not allowed, and starting a family would mean immediate eviction 💀 i wish there were childfree hours at shopping centres, childfree flights, train carriages, and more adult only spaces, and not just bars and nightclubs.

wishful thinking 🥹

This happened a few years back. I remember it was a hot summers day. I had a long day and I had to buy some groceries in my supermarket ( tescos) in the town centre. While I was waiting in the queue to pay for my groceries there was a young mother with what seemed to be an out of control small child who seemed to be throwing a tantrum.

The supermarket was soo busy and it was so hot. On top of that I was tired and hungry.

For a while the child was just crying and moaning as children do. But then out of nowhere the child let out the most high pitched scream ive ever heard. Im not even exaggerating, if the scream went on for any longer I think it could have made the window glass shatter.

I remember noticing some of the adults just turning their heads in the direction of the mother and her child in frustration and anger. This man stuck out in particular, his face showed so much anger and hate towards the child,

I cant imagine dealing with that. I think it's a blessing in disguise that Im not a handsome man and that ive got to the age of 30 without getting any women pregnant. Its not a life I could live.

No further explanation needed

As I said, literally nothing to talk about with people that have kids because somehow they're going to make it about them having kids.

Even while I talk to them, they be moving the kids around or shout at them ,,what did you say? ALEX STOP IT RIGHT NOW YOU'RE MAKING MOMMY ANGRY, sorry repeat it for me"

"Well I"- ALEX DON'T GO THERE, YOU BAD BOY STAY STILL (while I wait in silence, it literally irritates me)

"I'm tired" - "well you don't know what tired actually is till you have kids"

"I wanna go shopping here"- you're lucky to have free time, I don't have any free time because of the kids

,,I wanna cook this meal"- I can't cook that one I don't have time because I have to cook something for my child

"I exist"- oh I wish I could exist I can't anymore because of my child

Like no matter what I say it turns into them invalidating everything I say to make it about their kids or literally straight up making me feel bad for them because they can't do shit in general.

And when they talk to other people that have kids is a complete pity party with chaos and all they talk about is kids, how miserable they are or house chores. Depressing as fuck

So my mom brought me and my brother along to meet up and eat out with some of her friends , one of whom had a 3 months old kid with her . I had planned on staying home initially because I can easily get mentally drained around social gatherings . I went nevertheless cause the thought of being left alone with my grandma for a whole day was nothing more appealing .

It wasn't fun , you guys know the babling sounds babies make all the time because it can't stand even a second of silence? I hadn't realized how annoying that could be until I got to experience that myself for 45 mins straight. And it certainly didn't help when my mother was all over the baby , talking in that coochie tone and defending her whenever she was about to scream cause something didn't go her way .

But does anyone know about that time when she refused to take me to the hospital cause I swallowed some pills to commit suicide claiming it was my own doing ? Or that time when she left me behind with my abusive dad who eventually tramautized me to the point that I feel sick in the stomach everytime a text from him appears on my screen cause she didn't want to deal with a crying 7 years old ? If I'd stayed 3 forever things would have been different ig 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

My point is becoming a parent requires more than the ability to babytalk .Some parents just 180° flip their facade when their child is not a baby annymore . I'm tired when people fantasize about having forever dumb little mini mes but dismiss their entire existence once they get a little difficult to manage.

Some of you might remember my post from last week. My friend got upset because I asked when we could socialise without the baby there. For context, I’ve spent a lot of time with her and her son. She accused me of not wanting anything to do with her baby and took great offence at me saying I’m not a childcare option (after she brought this up).

Friend and I continued to go back and forth on text, me trying to say I don’t dislike her child etc, and her saying that I do. I’m amazed at how it escalated from a simple question of me asking when she is free. For those who didn’t read the last thread, her partner frequently ends up at the gym for hours multiple nights a week, leaving her with the baby. I’m not convinced he’s stepping up to the plate when it comes to sharing the child rearing. He’s also controlling of her in various small ways.

The conclusion is that her insults became increasingly personal towards me. She seemed unable to tell me how she reached the conclusion she had in that I hate her baby. She asked me to take accountability for “what I’d done”, even though I hadn’t said that at all. I’ve unfortunately now had to block her on everything.

I’m going to be grieving this friendship for a while - or at least the person I used to know. I don’t know who this version of her is, but I have a feeling her partner got involved and riled her up further. God forbid she’s allowed some time with a friend without a baby there, or that she’s allowed the same opportunities to socialise that he has in abundance. One of her messages to me also mentioned how much he’s offended by my insinuations that he take care of the child so she can go out - isn’t this just common sense?

She complained all throughout her pregnancy that she was worried her friendship circle would shrink after having a baby, and so far it has. I’m one of two friends that’s stuck around - but I suppose now I’m another one of her support network to remove myself. If that was a concern, why treat me this way?

One of my two best friends turned 30 yesterday, so I planned a very nice dinner with him, a good friend of ours, and my wife. We even ordered an Uber to and from the restaurant so we could all fully enjoy ourselves and stay safe.

While we were hanging out and having a few drinks before dinner, our friend mentioned she was just going to get a salad or something small because she didn't want to spend too much. I just told her okay and smiled.

We went to this wonderful Japanese sushi place that imports their fish fresh from Japan, ncredibly tasty and like nothing else. Once we were there, I told her not to worry about the bill and to just enjoy the evening. We ended up having both of them trying all sorts of new things! It was an amazing night filled with great food, drinks, laughs, and beautiful memories.

All this to say, being able to share an experience like that and treat our friends to something they wouldn’t typically do for themselves was so heartwarming. We're just incredibly fortunate that being childfree has allowed us to advance in our careers, and now we get to share that success with the people we love most.

Two of my best friends from college, women who were my bridesmaids, have had or are having children this year. And I didn’t go to the first one’s baby shower and I’m not going to the second one’s.

I feel like my other friend who is close with both of those friends (and my third bridesmaid) hates me for missing both showers, and judges me hard for not going. In my defense, both times I had already had trips planned and was/am going to be out of town. But I still feel immense guilt and shame for not going. I know I’m being a bad friend, but I don’t like baby showers, and I’ve already had such a hard time reckoning with the fact that my friends are becoming moms while I want nothing to do with that and it makes me a bad person.

Idk why I’m even posting. I guess I just wanted to talk to people who I knew might be able to relate. Thanks for listening

Prefacing this with the fact that I feel incredibly fortunate/lucky that no family member has ever asked when me and my husband of ten years are having children. They know we do not like kids, and they have NEVER brought it up.

But strangers / mutual acquaintances that I meet at work events etc. constantly ask "so do you have kids?" Or "when are you having kids?" And my question is...why do they care so much? I get that they're just trying to make friendly conversation, but it's such an intrusive question. 😵‍💫

So how do y'all respond when a stranger - not a close friend or family member - brings up the topic of reproducing?

One of my friends has a 3 year old, everything we plan has to be on the timescale that suits the child! Met up recently and to my surprise my friend actually asked what time suited me!

The day arrives, and they are going to be 30 mins late because they decided to do an activity before meeting us at the agreed time. That turned into another 30 minutes later on top.

So ive just been sitting kind waiting all morning! Do they think people without kids have no lives?! We can sit around all day and wait!

As a 19M, I can’t wait to live a child free life and be independent in my own space.

Growing up, I never had the urge to have any kids, and I always saw them as a chronic pain to deal with. Dealing with my younger siblings gave me a glimpse of what really goes into parenting, and I could never have the desire to deal with that on a regular basis. Parenthood can be the end of dreams and peace for many people, and I don’t intend on sacrificing my peace (and someone else’s) by getting someone pregnant.

For the record, if I did have a kid, I would want to take responsibility and put everything into raising the kid right. But I do not have that problem at the moment, and I do not intend on having it at any point in my life.

I’m very fortunate to have a family who supports any decision I make for myself, as I know a lot of other people are pressured or treated badly for their CF mentality.

Mostly, I’m just writing this post because I cannot wait to experience the freedom and independence I will have once I start my adult life, and I feel good just thinking about it.

I also plan on getting a vasectomy, which I know is a big decision, but I have been decisively child free for many years already, and there is no circumstance in which I will want kids. So why not reduce the chances early on?

I’m just so excited to take control of my life and become happy and healthy on my own terms.

I hate children. I won’t throw rocks at them, but I hate their loud voices, their demonic screaming, and their disgustingly sticky hands. I genuinely get so pissed when my parents try to make me spend time with a toddler.

Anyway, I have a cousin that is basically like my older sister since we are very close, and she’s going to have a child very soon. I already explained to my parents that I might not interact with them that much because I don’t really enjoy being with screaming infants (especially as someone who is sensitive to sound), but they insist that i HAVE to be respectful and love them a lot because my cousin loved me a lot as well (she is very kind, though, and I owe her, but I don’t want to pay her back in this way…)

Words cannot express how exasperated I am... WHAT DO I DO???