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It is not necessary or helpful to be uncivil about this.

altrego99 is expressing a considered personal view with which you disagree, not insulting you or the mass of humanity. You are entitled to your personal view as well. But you could recognize consideration of the issue as a good thing and the disagreement as normal and healthy. Instead, you are calling people terrible names and picking on grammar, without provocation. Please don't continue in that vein.

I think for most people, you are right that having a kid is a fulfilling thing. I am personally glad that someone is having kids (particularly if they are doing a good and thoughtful job of caring for them). But the implication that no one with kids could ever disagree with you is not correct - though it is unlikely that they will bother to do so in public. I have talked to several people who do regret having kids (particularly in a certain time or situation) but they are not so likely to say it - both because of the kind of aggressive reply you have given but maybe also because they are likely to be wrongly taken as saying that they do not love their children, or that they wish the child did not exist. A person can believe that having kids is not necessarily altruistic, or that there is no moral or practical imperative to have kids, without being an awful arrogant psychopath.

Before you have a child, there is no child to wish the nonexistence of. And since it is an irreversible long-term decision, you should definitely think about the pros and cons in a rational way. Many people do come to parenthood by a reasonable, conscious choice and that is a blessing. Other people decide not to. If that is in their best interests then good for them. Perhaps there will be a future time where it does make sense to have kids. Leave them be. It's a personal decision, not a moral necessity.

Not everyone has to get married, either; not getting married doesn't make you a psychopath or a pathetic unfulfilled person, even if it's a nice thing and a great life work for many people.



> But the implication that no one with kids could ever disagree with you is not correct

It is impossible to speak about any subject intelligently unless you have experience with it.

That's just how reality works.

If that offends your sensibilities, may I suggest you're a tad too sensitive?


I really hate that argument, because if you're here to have an actual conversation then the whole "you'll never understand until you x" statement is just you shutting the conversation down.

How about this: living without children at this time in your life where you currently have children is awesome and amazing, and you'll never understand how great it is because you have children. Yes you lived without children before but you were younger then, it's totally different now.

It's impossible for you to disagree with me, because you have no experience in this situation. It's just how reality works. Something something sensibilities.


So you can't have experience of having kids unless you have kids. This is almost along the lines of saying you don't know that getting hit by a car is bad, until you have been. I have plenty of experience with kids, my brothers and sisters have plenty. Not as much experience as a parent, clearly, but enough to know what I want.


Not the same. Getting hit by a car is physical and having a child is very much psychological and emotional.

Someone who's never loved can't say that love is overrated.

Edit: fixed typo


It's impossible for anyone to speak intelligently about living on the moon, because no one has ever lived on the moon?

It's impossible to speak intelligently about parachuting when you've never parachuted?

It's impossible to speak intelligently about being deaf when you're not deaf?

Hence my downvote.




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