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It seems to a childless me that today society forces you to spend unrealistic amount of time on children. Looking after them, hauling them around, catering to

It seems to a childless me that today society forces you to spend unrealistic amount of time on children. Looking after them, hauling them around, catering to their needs. If you don't do that you are suspicious and may even become a criminal: How dare you leave your 10yo kid alone and let her use internets unsupervised? I'm not sure I want that. It wasn't like that when I was a kid, I came from school on foot, boiled some food, made homework while parents were busy making money, even helped them with that a bit. Now it's supposed to be one way street. If society want everybody to have children they should whoa whoa take it easy.

jordan0day 13y ago
Even if you hadn't pointed out that you didn't have children, the rest of your comment made it plain. Society doesn't force you to spend an "unrealistic amount of time on children", if anything, it's the opposite, forcing you to spend too much time away from them. There's nothing wrong with making sure your children are independent and can do things on their own, and by the age of 10 I'd expect them to be capable of quite a bit of independence. However, even at that age, they're still aggregating enormous of new information about the world, daily. You should around to help guide them, teach them, or just be a sounding board for them to bounce ideas off of. You seem to be confusing normal child rearing with the "helicopter parent" meme. You should especially re-read your own sentence: "Looking after them, hauling them around, catering to their needs. If you don't do that you are suspicious and may even become a criminal" catering to their needs. Well I certainly hope if you have children you'd be willing to meet their needs!
- guard-of-terra 13y ago
  As a kid I was able to cover enough of my needs during the day to be home alone. Of course people who don't have children yet are prone to confusion and I'm not the only person alienated by this.
- tlear 13y ago
  Children actually have quite basic needs. Helicopter over protective parents are meme but also a reality as well. One of my friends spent 2k on a stroller.. another has 4 strollers.. another bought a 35k car because his current 4 year old Civic was not comfortable enough for his one kid (he has no savings) Children require you to feed, them have roof over their head, have clothing and teach them stuff by example. They do not require you to follow them around 24/7 making sure they don't get hurt or come into contact with outside world. When we had our kid I was really afraid that somehow I will turn into one of those crazy friends I have. It did not happen.. keeping wife from going there is taking some effort though.
oalders 13y ago
I don't think society wants everyone to have children. That would be a terrible idea. If it's not something you want to do then you absolutely shouldn't do it. You should reserve the right to change your mind, though. ;) And yes, if you don't have kids of your own, the time spent on them seems kind of insane. After you have them, it still seems like a lot of time, but most people would tell you it's worth it.

jordan0day 13y ago

Even if you hadn't pointed out that you didn't have children, the rest of your comment made it plain. Society doesn't force you to spend an "unrealistic amount of time on children", if anything, it's the opposite, forcing you to spend too much time away from them. There's nothing wrong with making sure your children are independent and can do things on their own, and by the age of 10 I'd expect them to be capable of quite a bit of independence. However, even at that age, they're still aggregating enormous of new information about the world, daily. You should around to help guide them, teach them, or just be a sounding board for them to bounce ideas off of. You seem to be confusing normal child rearing with the "helicopter parent" meme. You should especially re-read your own sentence: "Looking after them, hauling them around, catering to their needs. If you don't do that you are suspicious and may even become a criminal" catering to their needs. Well I certainly hope if you have children you'd be willing to meet their needs!

guard-of-terra 13y ago
As a kid I was able to cover enough of my needs during the day to be home alone. Of course people who don't have children yet are prone to confusion and I'm not the only person alienated by this.
tlear 13y ago
Children actually have quite basic needs. Helicopter over protective parents are meme but also a reality as well. One of my friends spent 2k on a stroller.. another has 4 strollers.. another bought a 35k car because his current 4 year old Civic was not comfortable enough for his one kid (he has no savings) Children require you to feed, them have roof over their head, have clothing and teach them stuff by example. They do not require you to follow them around 24/7 making sure they don't get hurt or come into contact with outside world. When we had our kid I was really afraid that somehow I will turn into one of those crazy friends I have. It did not happen.. keeping wife from going there is taking some effort though.

oalders 13y ago

I don't think society wants everyone to have children. That would be a terrible idea. If it's not something you want to do then you absolutely shouldn't do it. You should reserve the right to change your mind, though. ;) And yes, if you don't have kids of your own, the time spent on them seems kind of insane. After you have them, it still seems like a lot of time, but most people would tell you it's worth it.