this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Happy child free, may I ask how old you are roughly? Because to me it seems that this number and that happiness correlate strongly inversely. People are more and more lonely. Less family, fewer siblings, no children, ...
There sure are people of any age that are happy without children (or generally with or without anything). But since you mention this and me seeing that correlation: I have to ask. If you are 30 that is essential meaningless, like saying you do not care about pensions. If you are 60 both statements carry a lot more weight.
Very weird idea. Like, if you're 30, you should be socking money away for your retirement, not relying on your kids to support you when you're old. And also, by the time you are 60 you should have built up a large and supportive group of friends to make sure you aren't lonely, not rely on your kids to keep you company. Pretty much no one I know between the ages of 20 and 40 lives in the same city as their parents, and they visit them once per year for Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you are having kids so you won't be lonely... it's a bad bet.
I said it has a very different gravity depending on how old the person saying it is. Do you agree or not? Why?
I'm 41.
You don't need to answer that question. It's bullshit.
Fwiw, I have only one 'real'/local/irl friend that has children. They have been living in hell, to put it bluntly, for the last... 14 years. Everyone else is in a much better state of mind and happiness, and without children... so you could say from my perspective, that number of offspring is inversely related to the enjoyment of life. We can, have, stand back and say 'holy shit, fuck all that' - and so far, the message has stuck with the rest of us.
I feel sorry for the guy, I've known him for ~25 years, but he really could have solved many, many, many of life's problems with the use of a few condoms. Like, so many... so fucking (heh) many. Now he's stuck with a couple exs, a dead-end job, a couple of vehicles that are almost-literally falling apart, child support up to his eyeballs, and is headed towards his third bankruptcy. He nearly dragged me down trying to help him out financially. The rest of us are taking detailed notes of how life can go to shit with just one decision.
Really does not sound like children are the cause of the problems there.
It's not the fault of the children, but it's definitely because they had children. Two partners (two marriages) who had red flags the size of Texas, I was jumping up and down raising the alarm, and they still decided 'let's have kids, it'll be great for our relationship' which quickly turned into one side realizing 'I can leave, sit on my ass, and collect child support while the dumbass works his hands to the bone'. And then he did it again with partner #2!
Ulterior motives and people being massive pieces of shit is the root cause, but putting their dick in crazy (twice) lit the fuse. Trying to be a good person ('you don't need to get an abortion, I can provide for us, I'll get a second job...') locked him into the scenario he's now dreading.
Nice anecdote. How about you give some data for that instead of making people tell you their anecdotal ages?