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What would it take for you to rule out having children?

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posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:02 PM
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I decided years ago not to have children. I have believed for decades that the world has fallen to a point where it isn't fair to ask an innocent person to put up with it. Why? Well, the following speech is about 40 years old now, it's only gotten worse since then, much worse (quoting from "Network" (1976)):


www.youtube.com...


Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
www.imdb.com...


I know this site is full of idealists who would never give up hope. That's why I think this is the perfect place to ask the question...

What would it take for you to rule out having children?

For those who answer, "Never", this is my reply:

There will come a time when life on planet Earth will be an unbearable struggle for survival for humans. Whether that's a result of WW3, too many nuclear power plants melting down, all of the food and water being poisoned/radiated/genetically modified...or a thousand other things.

Earth is on brink of a sixth mass extinction, scientists say, and it’s humans’ fault

As we move towards the sixth mass extinction, at some point life on Earth will be a nightmare for people. Would you want to be responsible for bringing an innocent person into that?

I've already made the decision that I would not. And, in case anyone's wondering, that decision was not easy. It cost me my marriage and a lot more. But, every day I become more satisfied with the decision (as things continue to deteriorate).
edit on 16-2-2016 by Profusion because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:04 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

I also opted to not have children. I don't regret that choice.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:11 PM
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I'd need a DeLorean.


Sorry, couldn't resist.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:12 PM
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a reply to: Profusion
Being unable to physically procreate. And even then there is adoption. Love kids, seems I'm outnumbered for the moment.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:17 PM
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I'll be the first to admit that my son was an accident. Apparently birth control pills and condoms combined weren't enough to stop this particular life force! He wanted to live! And living he is! And though he was unexpected, I love him with all my heart.

ANYWAY.

Choice? I would have no children. Contrary to an often-thought happy-go-lucky belief that the world is fiiiine, no, the world is getting worse and worse. And I feel guilty bringing a child up in this world. I can only hope that when SHTF he is older and more capable.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:18 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

I said years ago that I wouldn't have kids after forty. If I didn't have a kid I wouldn't have one once I turned forty because I grew up with relatively young parents, I'm thirty and my parents are in their mid-fifties so I've grown up with them and am lucky that they're still here but to have kids after forty would for me, rob them of the experience of having a parent in their older life.

Think about it, If I was to have a kid at about forty by the time they're thirty I'll be about seventy (I think) and they're just reaching the quarter mark of their life and I'm reaching the final stretch and to me that's not really fair. I have to make sure people understand, this is a personal choice I wont attack people who have kids later.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:22 PM
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Because I cant afford to be poor. Being a full time welder fabricator dint pay the bills and having to others say well get a second job etc etc. Our world is #ed up beyond belief having a child in my current situation would be nothing less then cruel.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:39 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

Just think, if your parents decided not to have children, you wouldn't be able to ask this question.

I believe everyone who is put on this earth has a purpose. It may not be for themselves, but for someone else. It's pessimistic to think that future generations won't see the error of earlier generations and change the world for the better. If we give up hope for the future, we will have no future.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:46 PM
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a reply to: Profusion
I chose never to have children in my early teens, because I didn't like what i saw where I grew up. Everyone said I would change my mind once I was older.

I never did.

ETA: Forgot to mention, I do/did have a stepson.


edit on 2/16/2016 by Klassified because: eta



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 08:52 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

I would really ask the opposite question:

Supposing that your child, like all life, would have to endure pain and difficultly, how much difficultly would you place your child before, just so they could experience a single moment of love?

How much love would it take for you to knowing create life?

Honestly, has your life been so difficult that you wish you were never born?

You're still here aren't you?



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 09:01 PM
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a reply to: Profusion


An argument that I've had with a daughter. So you would retire your wit and wisdom and not pass it on through children because the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of the way certain people are running it. So you leave the world to the losers and evil ones? Thinking that you'll have no part of it and neither will any children that you refuse to have (on those grounds). Certainly then, you will deserve the world you get in your old age.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 09:03 PM
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Well, I have children. Teenagers to be exact. and that makes me decide most firmly not to have children. Kinda a catch 22 on my end.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 09:09 PM
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For as long as I could remember I always wanted to be a parent.
My son is 18 months, is testing in the 2-4 range for cognizance and awareness (test performed by my sisters [speech pathologists] around Christmas).

Were the world to end tomorrow, my life would still be better for having him around, however brief the time.

From the OP's post:


There will come a time when life on planet Earth will be an unbearable struggle for survival for humans. Whether that's a result of WW3, too many nuclear power plants melting down, all of the food and water being poisoned/radiated/genetically modified...or a thousand other things.


The world was an "unbearable struggle for survival for humans," for thousands and thousands of years, yet we as a species survived.

The world can be harsh and cruel for any being of any species. That is never a reason to throw in the towel.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 09:12 PM
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What would it take? Quite a lot. Nuclear fallout and inevitable painful mutations upon birth maybe. Being out numbered by roving murderous bands of cannibal zombies perhaps. Honestly, I always knew I wanted children and it's been difficult at times but incredibly rewarding as well. Best decision I ever made. And I'm no idealist, but things aren't nearly as bleak as some claim. Out here in the boonies it's pretty great actually.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 09:15 PM
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I've wanted children for a while. Being recently single in my mid 30s, I've realized that now I wouldn't want a kid in my 40s.

The ex helped that decision.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 10:17 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

The world I live in is pretty awesome - in fact, a much better place to live in many ways than it was for most of human history. Subsequent generations of humans are the only hope humanity has for survival, unless and until immortality is achieved.

The only thing which would have kept me from having children would have been if my wife or I had a generic defect we did not want to pass down. We didn't, have had our two children, and couldn't be happier with the decision.

Our kids are very happy with life, and really enjoy the wonderful world they live in. Perhaps your focus is a bit too heavy on the negatives in the world, and lacking in historical/realistic perspective.

EDIT: I meant GENETIC, not generic defect. I could deal with a run of the mill, generic defect. I've got plenty of those.
edit on 2/16/2016 by dogstar23 because: Swypo



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 10:35 PM
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I love being a mama and you can't have grandchildren without having children first.



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 10:39 PM
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Ok whatever guys, my fifth one is on the way. It is not as if not having children is going to stop anything. Thanks for yielding the allocation of resources though, much appreciated. Just going to say this, you have no idea what hope is, until you have held your newborn in your arms, and dreamed of the future you will pave for that child with your sweat, blood, and tears.

Free will though.

a reply to: dogstar23

I share this POV very closely, and agree with it. I live in a very positive place, beautiful city that has made many great achievements to restore a lot of ecological damage done to our local environment during the mid 20th century. Jobs are abundant, our police are fair, our local government is very fair. Lots of fun and entertaining things to do. Our water quality is top notch. Just isn't that much for me to complain about here in my community other than a lack of sidewalks in the neighborhoods which is being addressed every year with the addition of new ones. And our city charter protects trees very aggressively.

I FEEEL GOOD!
edit on 2/16/2016 by AmericanRealist because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 16 2016 @ 11:17 PM
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a reply to: Profusion

The fact that I would have to listen too the sound of a baby crying for at least a year,on top of that I find kids highly annoying,but the sound of crying baby is the worst sound in the world to me,I'd rather go deaf than listen to that crap for even 1 week straight.



posted on Feb, 17 2016 @ 12:08 AM
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Although things can change and anything is possible, unless they change radically for me, and within me, I won't have children. I love my parents very much as does any child, and I have a great relationships with my mom, and wish I had a better one with my father. But I grew up in a household that was the product of two people who had a lot of issues they were unconscious of, weren't confronting (and still haven't fully,) and some habits which were harmful both to themselves and others. They really weren't ready to have children, and I don't know if even now they would be, were they young enough to do so.

I have a lot of issues of my own. Far too many to be a responsible parent that could give a child not only the love (that I could do,) but the guidance and financial stability I would want them to have. As such, I wouldn't feel right bringing them into an environment and a lifestyle that might not be a positive home for them. They'd have to do without a lot for one thing, and while that doesn't make one a bad parent by ANY means... it does make me not want to be one.

Until and unless all of the above changes.

Plus the opportunity seems improbable short of adoption.

Peace.



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