6 ms·

Yes, parenthood is intense, both both ways. It intensifies the highs and the lows. There's more strain and there's more joy. And there's a lot less strain when

Yes, parenthood is intense, both both ways. It intensifies the highs and the lows. There's more strain and there's more joy. And there's a lot less strain when moving out of nuclear family structures. It all becomes easier for the children and the parents.

lumost 3y ago
Can you elaborate? Curious how the stress profile differs in alternative family structures.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  It’s in TFA but pretty self-evident: in traditional non-nuclear families, extended kin (especially grandparents) help with childcare, reducing the burden.
- bnlxbnlx 3y ago
  i'm living with two other families in a house (separate apartments). it lifts the hyper dependency of children on their parents and creates more room to attend to needs for both adults and children. it also makes it possible to stack many things, like grocery shopping or cooking (one person cooking for 12 people does not require three times as much time as cooking for four people). plus, there's usually always other adults at the house that you can hang out with plus many other kids for your kids to play with, so less stress with playdates etc.
amrocha 3y ago
I disagree that there's more joy to parenthood. I think that's a lie parents tell themselves to justify their decision. I'm happy for you if you're happy to have children. That doesn't mean people without children aren't as happy as you.
- Proziam 3y ago
  This stance strikes me as odd. Every parent was once a non-parent, and therefore can compare their own experience before and after. I'm sure parents are a little (intentionally) delusional at times, nobody wants to seem like a 'bad' or 'uncaring' parent. But to assume that the extreme majority of parents are lying about enjoying an experience that they've been evolutionarily primed for seems like flat-earth level reality-denial.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    My issue is not with the fact that some parents are happy with their decision. My issue is the implication that the joy of parenthood is above every other joy. For comparison, you don't see programmers claiming the joy of programming is superior to all other jobs. Mountaineers don't claim that you haven't enjoyed life unless you climb mountains. Why? Because those things are obviously joyful, but not accessible to everyone. Not everyone can climb, not everyone can program, but everyone can find their own joy. So why do parents feel okay saying that? If you can come up with any other reason then please let me know because I'm still searching.
    - fardinahsan 3y ago
      The reason is quite straightforward. The survival of the human species depends on it being this way.
    - Proziam 3y ago
      The same reason sex is pleasurable. We would not be here if it were not this way. Put in different terms, there are many experiences which have an evolutionary origin. Disgust reactions to certain sights/smells are a near-universal experience, for example. Individuals that don't share these experiences (or who are attracted to them) are considered weird or degenerate precisely because they are so universal.
      - Erratic6576 3y ago
        Yeah but no. Pleasure is brutal manipulation at play. Sex is short-lived pleasure, dopamine. Family relationships are long-term happiness, serotonins.
- cornstalks 3y ago
  Just as you think it’s annoying to have someone project the statement onto you (though I don’t think that’s what GP was doing), I think it’s annoying you’re telling me it’s a lie that I’m telling myself. I can say with confidence I’m happier with kids than without. I’ve had it both ways, and I can speak to my own experience with honesty far better than you can guess about strangers you don’t know. Don’t take GP’s statement as a projection onto you. Take it as one’s projection onto their own self. That said, this (GP’s statement) has been the general consensus of other parents I’ve talked to. So I wouldn’t discard it so flippantly. That doesn’t mean literally everyone would be happier with children, of course.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    And I'm very happy for you. However, what I'm arguing is not "having children makes me happy." It's "having children is above every other kind of happiness." Think about that for a second. What does that statement say to a person without children? To me, I hear that if you don't have children you're literally wasting your life. It's a denial of every other thing people find joy in. Why would you say that? I can only think of two reasons: - You're an asshole trying to feel superior to others - You're unsure of your decision, so you have to put everyone else down If you have any other reasons then let me know though!
    - Apocryphon 3y ago
      Perhaps they are helpfully evangelizing a happiness that someone else may not have considered. Not everyone without children has taken a resolute stand on the matter. Some may be on the fence. Everything is anecdotal anyway so why be so offended?
    - david-gpu 3y ago
      Because of course it is impossible that they are genuinely describing their personal experience where raising children has brought them fulfillment and meaning beyond anything else they have ever done, right? I think the main communication barrier between childless people and parents is that it's an experience far removed from anything else we do in our lives, so it is very difficult to grasp if you haven't been there. Parents know that there will be times when raising your kids is the most meaningful thing you've ever done, and there are other times when it's a relentless slog that is grinding you down. It is both, and perhaps it is neither. As a childless person you may read the above and think I'm stupid or deluded, but I bet most parents will nod in understanding, because they will have experienced something similar.
- glitchc 3y ago
  Can you really have an objective opinion until you experience both sides? I suspect it isn't the parents that are lying to themselves...
  - salamandersss 3y ago
    Once you experience the other side, outside of a psuedo-anonymous forum you're not really allowed to have the other opinion, and you'll quickly learn to shut up or 'lie' or become a hated pariah. It becomes a bit of an echo chamber.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    >I suspect it isn't the parents that are lying to themselves... I suspect some of them are genuinely happy they had kids, some others are lying to themselves, and some others lie to others because they don't want to become pariahs when it's found out that they wish they hadn't had kids. You can read the opinions of the last group on some anonymous discussion forums; they're real people. What the relative ratios of these 3 groups are, I have no idea, and I doubt there's any way of finding out.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    You can't have an objective opinion after experiencing both sides either. A child is a life long decision. You don't get to say "oh I was wrong" after a couple years.
    - lynx23 3y ago
      > You don't get to say "oh I was wrong" after a couple years. Parents leaving their partner and their child behind isn't unheard of. Even women sometimes do so. Sometimes, children end up at the grandparents, and the woman tries to start over. Your claim seems to come from an idealized world.
- 7thaccount 3y ago
  I don't think the commenter is saying you can't be happy without children, but it's a kind of experience that you either have or you don't, and it's hard to understand if you never had children. I'll add some context below in case you're interested in hearing about my own perspective. I was pretty darn happy as someone who got to go read a book each weekend at a coffee shop and workout 3x per week. I eventually had a kid and I no longer have hardly any time for the stuff I used to love to do. Kids need constant assistance and have their own growing pains. Despite all that, it's given me a richness and depth to my life that I can't put into words. I get to experience raising someone with all the ups and downs. This has given me a kind of wisdom I never knew I didn't have. I could go on and on for days. "A lie parents tell themselves to justify their decision"? Not at all (at least for 99% of is I'd wager). It's terrifying, but I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't trade the feeling I get from getting a hug from my kid or that first time they read a book for a combined $50B dollars, immortality, super inhumane intelligence, and movie star good looks.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - salamandersss 3y ago
    Meh I mean it's true for some not others. I had a kid and never particularly found the richness and depth emotional feeling. Of course if you express the opinion you find parenting to be basically another duty you must fulfill to the best of your ability despite finding little to no joy from the task, it will be taken poorly. So you internalize the lie, buy into it the best you can to pretend to yourself you don't have an opinion that makes everyone hate you, because apparently parenting is the one duty that is 'wrong' unless you find it satisfying. Feels like a bunch of people got the 'dope' that makes parents feel emotional rewarded from the insane amount of labor it requires, others internalize the 'lie' so they have a way to respond to others in a socially appropriate way.
    - em-bee 3y ago
      actually, i believe this experience is more common for fathers at least than people want to admit. especially in western society fathers are generally expected to be more involved, and have a hard time when they come from a family where this wasn't the case (so they don't have a good role model) nor have a partner that encourages them to be involved, or worse a partner that actually discourages them. i have been struggling with this too, especially because i had quite different expectations going in. but the thing is that what gives you joy very much depends on your own expectations, and you can change those. i believe it's the same thing as with a job. there are people arguing that you should love your job, and if you don't you should not be doing it, while others claim that most people don't have a choice but to take a job that they don't enjoy. finding that joy may just take some searching.
- Auracle 3y ago
  Other people have put it more eloquently and perhaps a bit more diplomatically, but you’re wrong. I lived for 33 years before having a child and nothing - absolutely nothing - ever brought me more joy than something as simple as my daughter’s stupid grin when I’m on my back and she’s above me, ready to pounce. While I’m sure not every parent feels the same way, I bet most do. I feel sorry for the people out there that would get the same feeling but will never experience it.
  - HeckFeck 3y ago
    Wait until she hits the curiosity stage and you see the birth of reason. That's something you don't get from a dog.
- imetatroll 3y ago
  Western culture no longer seems to appreciate the commitment that is required to raise children. Personally I think people are too self-centered and are too eager to seek hedonism. Whether or not it will be OK long term is to be seen. I have no doubt that if you were to ask the people without kids on their death bed if they wished they had had them, they would say yes.
  - Fricken 3y ago
    In western culture raising kids by societal norms is a bigger commitment than it ever was. My grandma had 7 siblings and no shoes for most of her childhood. It wasn't nearly as big a commitment for my great grandparents to raise her.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    People in their deathbed also regret working so much but nobody's chomping at the bit to quit their job and become a bum.
    - david-gpu 3y ago
      > People in their deathbed also regret working so much but nobody's chomping at the bit to quit their job and become a bum The Financially Independent Retired Early (FIRE) movement is very popular and it centers around focusing on the essentials so that you can quit working early. And that's just an example of one of the ways in which people escape the rat race.
    - ido 3y ago
      Bums exist, so someone must have!
- lynx23 3y ago
  So true.
- bnlxbnlx 3y ago
  i didn't mean to generalize in what i said, but i see that the way i framed it makes it easy to understand that way. i totally think that for some people having children would definitely not make them more happy, possibly many. it really depends on what gives you meaning, joy (obviously) and i think to a significant extent the setup within which you are having children. before i moved into this setup with the other families parenthood was significantly less joyful for me. privilege is also a big factor. how much education and access to resources do you have so that you have the option to choose to work less than full-time for example?

lumost 3y ago

Can you elaborate? Curious how the stress profile differs in alternative family structures.

Apocryphon 3y ago
It’s in TFA but pretty self-evident: in traditional non-nuclear families, extended kin (especially grandparents) help with childcare, reducing the burden.
bnlxbnlx 3y ago
i'm living with two other families in a house (separate apartments). it lifts the hyper dependency of children on their parents and creates more room to attend to needs for both adults and children. it also makes it possible to stack many things, like grocery shopping or cooking (one person cooking for 12 people does not require three times as much time as cooking for four people). plus, there's usually always other adults at the house that you can hang out with plus many other kids for your kids to play with, so less stress with playdates etc.

amrocha 3y ago

I disagree that there's more joy to parenthood. I think that's a lie parents tell themselves to justify their decision. I'm happy for you if you're happy to have children. That doesn't mean people without children aren't as happy as you.

Proziam 3y ago
This stance strikes me as odd. Every parent was once a non-parent, and therefore can compare their own experience before and after. I'm sure parents are a little (intentionally) delusional at times, nobody wants to seem like a 'bad' or 'uncaring' parent. But to assume that the extreme majority of parents are lying about enjoying an experience that they've been evolutionarily primed for seems like flat-earth level reality-denial.
- amrocha 3y ago
  My issue is not with the fact that some parents are happy with their decision. My issue is the implication that the joy of parenthood is above every other joy. For comparison, you don't see programmers claiming the joy of programming is superior to all other jobs. Mountaineers don't claim that you haven't enjoyed life unless you climb mountains. Why? Because those things are obviously joyful, but not accessible to everyone. Not everyone can climb, not everyone can program, but everyone can find their own joy. So why do parents feel okay saying that? If you can come up with any other reason then please let me know because I'm still searching.
  - fardinahsan 3y ago
    The reason is quite straightforward. The survival of the human species depends on it being this way.
  - Proziam 3y ago
    The same reason sex is pleasurable. We would not be here if it were not this way. Put in different terms, there are many experiences which have an evolutionary origin. Disgust reactions to certain sights/smells are a near-universal experience, for example. Individuals that don't share these experiences (or who are attracted to them) are considered weird or degenerate precisely because they are so universal.
    - Erratic6576 3y ago
      Yeah but no. Pleasure is brutal manipulation at play. Sex is short-lived pleasure, dopamine. Family relationships are long-term happiness, serotonins.
cornstalks 3y ago
Just as you think it’s annoying to have someone project the statement onto you (though I don’t think that’s what GP was doing), I think it’s annoying you’re telling me it’s a lie that I’m telling myself. I can say with confidence I’m happier with kids than without. I’ve had it both ways, and I can speak to my own experience with honesty far better than you can guess about strangers you don’t know. Don’t take GP’s statement as a projection onto you. Take it as one’s projection onto their own self. That said, this (GP’s statement) has been the general consensus of other parents I’ve talked to. So I wouldn’t discard it so flippantly. That doesn’t mean literally everyone would be happier with children, of course.
- amrocha 3y ago
  And I'm very happy for you. However, what I'm arguing is not "having children makes me happy." It's "having children is above every other kind of happiness." Think about that for a second. What does that statement say to a person without children? To me, I hear that if you don't have children you're literally wasting your life. It's a denial of every other thing people find joy in. Why would you say that? I can only think of two reasons: - You're an asshole trying to feel superior to others - You're unsure of your decision, so you have to put everyone else down If you have any other reasons then let me know though!
  - Apocryphon 3y ago
    Perhaps they are helpfully evangelizing a happiness that someone else may not have considered. Not everyone without children has taken a resolute stand on the matter. Some may be on the fence. Everything is anecdotal anyway so why be so offended?
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    Because of course it is impossible that they are genuinely describing their personal experience where raising children has brought them fulfillment and meaning beyond anything else they have ever done, right? I think the main communication barrier between childless people and parents is that it's an experience far removed from anything else we do in our lives, so it is very difficult to grasp if you haven't been there. Parents know that there will be times when raising your kids is the most meaningful thing you've ever done, and there are other times when it's a relentless slog that is grinding you down. It is both, and perhaps it is neither. As a childless person you may read the above and think I'm stupid or deluded, but I bet most parents will nod in understanding, because they will have experienced something similar.
glitchc 3y ago
Can you really have an objective opinion until you experience both sides? I suspect it isn't the parents that are lying to themselves...
- salamandersss 3y ago
  Once you experience the other side, outside of a psuedo-anonymous forum you're not really allowed to have the other opinion, and you'll quickly learn to shut up or 'lie' or become a hated pariah. It becomes a bit of an echo chamber.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  >I suspect it isn't the parents that are lying to themselves... I suspect some of them are genuinely happy they had kids, some others are lying to themselves, and some others lie to others because they don't want to become pariahs when it's found out that they wish they hadn't had kids. You can read the opinions of the last group on some anonymous discussion forums; they're real people. What the relative ratios of these 3 groups are, I have no idea, and I doubt there's any way of finding out.
- amrocha 3y ago
  You can't have an objective opinion after experiencing both sides either. A child is a life long decision. You don't get to say "oh I was wrong" after a couple years.
  - lynx23 3y ago
    > You don't get to say "oh I was wrong" after a couple years. Parents leaving their partner and their child behind isn't unheard of. Even women sometimes do so. Sometimes, children end up at the grandparents, and the woman tries to start over. Your claim seems to come from an idealized world.
7thaccount 3y ago
I don't think the commenter is saying you can't be happy without children, but it's a kind of experience that you either have or you don't, and it's hard to understand if you never had children. I'll add some context below in case you're interested in hearing about my own perspective. I was pretty darn happy as someone who got to go read a book each weekend at a coffee shop and workout 3x per week. I eventually had a kid and I no longer have hardly any time for the stuff I used to love to do. Kids need constant assistance and have their own growing pains. Despite all that, it's given me a richness and depth to my life that I can't put into words. I get to experience raising someone with all the ups and downs. This has given me a kind of wisdom I never knew I didn't have. I could go on and on for days. "A lie parents tell themselves to justify their decision"? Not at all (at least for 99% of is I'd wager). It's terrifying, but I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't trade the feeling I get from getting a hug from my kid or that first time they read a book for a combined $50B dollars, immortality, super inhumane intelligence, and movie star good looks.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- salamandersss 3y ago
  Meh I mean it's true for some not others. I had a kid and never particularly found the richness and depth emotional feeling. Of course if you express the opinion you find parenting to be basically another duty you must fulfill to the best of your ability despite finding little to no joy from the task, it will be taken poorly. So you internalize the lie, buy into it the best you can to pretend to yourself you don't have an opinion that makes everyone hate you, because apparently parenting is the one duty that is 'wrong' unless you find it satisfying. Feels like a bunch of people got the 'dope' that makes parents feel emotional rewarded from the insane amount of labor it requires, others internalize the 'lie' so they have a way to respond to others in a socially appropriate way.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    actually, i believe this experience is more common for fathers at least than people want to admit. especially in western society fathers are generally expected to be more involved, and have a hard time when they come from a family where this wasn't the case (so they don't have a good role model) nor have a partner that encourages them to be involved, or worse a partner that actually discourages them. i have been struggling with this too, especially because i had quite different expectations going in. but the thing is that what gives you joy very much depends on your own expectations, and you can change those. i believe it's the same thing as with a job. there are people arguing that you should love your job, and if you don't you should not be doing it, while others claim that most people don't have a choice but to take a job that they don't enjoy. finding that joy may just take some searching.
Auracle 3y ago
Other people have put it more eloquently and perhaps a bit more diplomatically, but you’re wrong. I lived for 33 years before having a child and nothing - absolutely nothing - ever brought me more joy than something as simple as my daughter’s stupid grin when I’m on my back and she’s above me, ready to pounce. While I’m sure not every parent feels the same way, I bet most do. I feel sorry for the people out there that would get the same feeling but will never experience it.
- HeckFeck 3y ago
  Wait until she hits the curiosity stage and you see the birth of reason. That's something you don't get from a dog.
imetatroll 3y ago
Western culture no longer seems to appreciate the commitment that is required to raise children. Personally I think people are too self-centered and are too eager to seek hedonism. Whether or not it will be OK long term is to be seen. I have no doubt that if you were to ask the people without kids on their death bed if they wished they had had them, they would say yes.
- Fricken 3y ago
  In western culture raising kids by societal norms is a bigger commitment than it ever was. My grandma had 7 siblings and no shoes for most of her childhood. It wasn't nearly as big a commitment for my great grandparents to raise her.
- amrocha 3y ago
  People in their deathbed also regret working so much but nobody's chomping at the bit to quit their job and become a bum.
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    > People in their deathbed also regret working so much but nobody's chomping at the bit to quit their job and become a bum The Financially Independent Retired Early (FIRE) movement is very popular and it centers around focusing on the essentials so that you can quit working early. And that's just an example of one of the ways in which people escape the rat race.
  - ido 3y ago
    Bums exist, so someone must have!
lynx23 3y ago
So true.
bnlxbnlx 3y ago
i didn't mean to generalize in what i said, but i see that the way i framed it makes it easy to understand that way. i totally think that for some people having children would definitely not make them more happy, possibly many. it really depends on what gives you meaning, joy (obviously) and i think to a significant extent the setup within which you are having children. before i moved into this setup with the other families parenthood was significantly less joyful for me. privilege is also a big factor. how much education and access to resources do you have so that you have the option to choose to work less than full-time for example?