I love kids, I’m good with kids, always wanted them.
Decided not to have any. Climate change, capitalism, lack of nearby family for childcare, two working adults already have no time or energy without kids, and the fact America hates it’s citizens and only cares if they can submit to a boss. I don’t much like the world we live in and resent being born; I would have a lot of guilt bringing a child into the world
America hates its citizens
Yes, but mostly its non-white citizens, and definitely despises its black citizens. White citizens it at least pretends to like.
What about global warming worries you the most to prevent you from having children?
We’ve got a kid and he’s probably gonna die in a nuclear war, but hey, he was probably gonna die someday anyway.
I don’t know if to laugh or cry at that statement 🥲
China: One child policy
Capitalist West: Zero child policy
China doesn’t have the one child policy anymore
I know I was just joshin’
dont know how anyone manages it fuckin hell
Due to an oddity of health insurance and drug manufacturer coupons we have our maximum out of pocket hit without spending any money.
If not for that, our baby would have cost us $40,000 out of pocket, out of about a $300,000 bill, in 1 year. That’s pregnancy, screenings, birth, and a single cold from the first day of day care. The cold was $200,000 for a week in the hospital.
I can barely pay for myself
Same
So far the only way it has been working out for me is a number of privileges I’ve not earned such as paying far far below market rent.
How is that possible? Do you live with your parents?
My landlord is a family member who can afford to be nice to us
Oh, I see
Releasing my hit DSBM/raw black metal/dungeon synth single “Maternity: The Prime Mover Of Suffering” soon.
So are you becoming a single mother?
hell no
Just name your child after one of many, many businesses and you’ll get some free shit
My child, Best Buy T.J. Maxx Subway is doing pretty good so far
Wait, is that a thing? 😂
I would love to have a kid someday, it’s just sad that it’s primarily a fiscal decision
Gotta laugh how fash think people aren’t having babies because of Jewish mind control when in reality the people are fucking broke and childcare in the USA is a luxury lmao
The mental gymnastic to defend capitalism 😂
if it was feasible during the Black Death it’s feasible now. you just have to adjust your expectations of your child’s material conditions from infancy through adulthood. If you go through with it you should also accept the likelihood that their life will be short and bad.
I wouldn’t call the Black Death feasible, but more “miserable” and 2/3 of crackerland died, so many people with kids end up with no kids, and many kids ended up raising themselves. So comparing crackerland’s Black Plague to modern conditions is like comparing apples and oranges.
covid was just Diet Black Death
If my child must serve in the dukes army, so be it
Great, so if I can stomach bringing life into this world with the intention of it suffering horribly then we’re good to go.
owls just need to adapt to eating human carcasses and they’ll do fine
Idk, our carcasses are probably full of micro plastics.
Yeah I ain’t eating that shit. Gimme beans
your parents did
Still debating if that was a good decision on their part.
Also, they had me in the 90s when they still thought there was a future and were told that the economy would only get better and better.
Also, they were terrible people that made my life hell so they’re maybe not the best example
oof. okay yea good point.
Not exactly. My parents were both born in the 60s and lived in an entirely different world when they had me
I’m personally probably never going to have kids because 1) I haven’t had a partner in awhile and 2) I don’t like the argument that “things were bad in the past and people still had kids” because you’re really just rolling the dice at that point. I also don’t buy the alpha bro argument that humans are meant to reproduce as if humans aren’t creatures with the capacity to make decisions about what is best. Plus, kids are becoming a luxury with the way everything continues to get more expensive with no signs of the bourgeois being kept in check. So naturally, things will only continue to get worse.
I don’t understand why people are obsessed with their genes and can’t at least consider adopting but I also realize capitalism has fucked that alternative too.
It’s certainly doable but much more difficult, both parents must work now - nevermind single parents. Community is shot in general and families are spread out partially due to economic effects, people leave because they go where work is, the churn means roots are harder to put down and neoliberal individualism has kind of rotted out a lot of communities as well. It’s hard to raise kids when you’re on your own and there just aren’t as many options for assistance. Wages have also been suppressed for quite some time so the money coming in just isn’t meeting how much kids can cost.
So, is it feasible? Yeah, I see kids and families all the time. Is it more difficult in ways previous generations did not in general experience? Yeah, some of these struggles have been shared by many oppressed people historically but the widening of who struggles with raising children is new.
I mean yeah a lot of people are out there doing it lol
Definitely not ideal, and my partner and I aren’t going to for a variety of reasons, but given adequate money and a strong family support system you can avoid most of the problems poorer people will face
I think the problem is that “adequate money” gets harder and harder to get.
May I ask which are some of the reasons why you decided against?
climate
the US is a shithole that I wouldn’t want to bring anyone into
the feeling that you should only have kids if it’s the #1 thing you want in life and that isn’t true for either of us
Really these points are all kinda the same thing lmao
Which things about global warming worries you the most?
I have similar answers to the question. For me it’s a combination of knowing that in the West, no matter how hard you try, another person just living life here will disproportionately contribute to climate change and waste purely because of how society is set up. Sure a revolution would fix that eventually, but having kids is not an important enough desire for me to roll the dice there.
And second, knowing how bad things are likely to get in the near term seems like having a kid is really setting them up for a ton of difficulty and dread unless you’re very wealthy.
For me personally, I think communism will come from outside the west and anyone here who can organize is doing it primarily as harm reduction for their community and attempting to slow down how much the west can fuck up for the rest of the world. Having a kid might add another to that group, but it’s also part of the two points on climate and doesn’t seem fair to the kid or the world to me.
I’m sure others are more optimistic or have a stronger desire that make it worth it to them, and I’m glad for it. Otherwise things would be pretty grim for the left here