Thread

Replies (60)

Children are the ultimate paradox. They simultaneously destroy your ego and reconstruct your soul. They’re the hardest challenge you’ll never want to quit, a relentless dismantling of who you thought you were, and a revelation of who you’re capable of becoming. The ROI? Immeasurable. The cost? Everything you thought mattered. @HODL is on point. The poorest generations in history still figured it out. What’s your excuse?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ View quoted note β†’
You seem to harbor a misrepresentation of my position. I'm not against marriage, children, or family. I used to teach children math and critical thinking. I applied the Golden Rule by neurologically profiling each student and then tailoring my approach to each individual in order to provide the highest possible service I could. The original claim HODL made was that "Marriage and family is essential for a full and happy life." That claim is false.
I absolutely agree with the general ethos behind your post. A lot of people have been convinced that children are a hindrance to happiness. Without a doubt I think it's important to reject that inherently anti-human narrative. At the same time, telling other people what is best for them can only stem from arrogance. We never know what someone else's experience has been. For example, I listened to a podcast recently where a minister and his wife had upwards of five miscarriages. I don't remember the exact number, but I'm sure you could imagine how traumatic that was. I could never force you to empathize with anyone, and wouldn't want to, but making claims about universal truth aren't as simple as opposing prevailing negatives. In some cases these types of statements can cause more harm than good, if you care πŸ€™
I think that's like asking to give a precise definition of sea water. It's difficult, but virtually everyone can tell apart sea water from fresh water in a blind tasting. In the negative, I'd say a good parent is someone who isn't self-centered and doesn't humiliate his child because of his own insecurities. Someone who doesn't make his child doubt himself. I used to believe that an acceptable parent was just someone who didn't physically abuse his child and provided food, shelter, clothing and schooling. Now I know that's not enough. The children of openly alcoholic, drug addict, physically abusive parents are "lucky" (in a very twisted way, of course), because when they share their experience most people will understand and empathize. But the true "genius" is when you can humiliate, ridicule, exploit and psychologically abuse your child without overstepping the socially acceptable boundary. Achieving that "sweet point" where you can maximize the abuse and the damage while maximizing the deniability. Because when the child talks about it, everyone around will just shrug and say that it was a joke, that it was nothing, that it was the child's fault, that maybe the child didn't perceive it accurately, that that's the way things are, that it's impossible because your parents love you dearly... The true "genius" is getting away with as much abuse as you can and making your child believe that it's his own fault or that it's for his own good.
Deep down they know, and that is why it bothered them. Remember, ladies, it becomes significantly harder to have kids after 35, and that’s a regret you can never changeβ€”something to really think about. Everyone's life is their choice, which also means taking personal responsibility for the decisions they make. Just make sure they are your decisions, and not someone else's, like those pushing feminism on you, etc.
Everyone dies alone. If you have children, you will probably have more joy and connection in life. There are a few exceptions β€” I met an enliightened Buddhist monk (the real deal), and he was doing way better than anyone β€” but vast majority of humans (and he even admitted himself) would be better off having kids, something that’s obvious once you have kids. There is a minority of miserable people who probably should not have kids for the sake of the kids.
Congrats if that happens to you YOU will be lucky. In my lifetime I have known dozens of parents, friends, relatives that had multiple children happy lives and just simply died alone. Lots of ways to go in this world and you don't always conveniently check out in a nursing home or at your own home surrounded by close family like in the movies. More than the other way around i am afraid imo. I literally have no idea how many kids i may have I was single in the 80's and 90's with my own pad. So theres that.
Right, you *might* be surrounded by family, but if you go without warning (which is preferable IMO), low chance you’ll have family around at that very moment. And either way, they can’t come with you. Ideal is you’re 95, had the grandkids/great grandkids out at the country house, played with them, had a BBQ, went up to your room and just didn’t wake up the next morning. Died alone in bed after a full day with family.
People react strongly to the idea of having children because it touches the core of existence, our responsibility to life, the legacy we leave, and the fears we carry about the future. It’s not about the message, it’s about confronting our own choices and mortality.
Yeah I don't think everyone should have kids but I will say if you want to have kids do not wait, kids are honestly cheap to feed etc. the clothing is expensive but you don't need a bunch of money or whatever, have them young while you've actually got the energy to raise them, to run around and play to teach them things. Honestly I think people should have kids when they are still living with their parents, so the grandparents can help and also get to build connection with the kids. Like 16-21 is the best age to become a parent.
Dude, stop playing dumb πŸ˜‚ I know that YOU know it was the way you said it. You said it in the style of Andrew Tate when he says things by speaking in absolutes. Thinking things are super black and white like that is retarded
Epigeneticly speaking, people who do not have children can still have a huge positive effect on our populations. On a large scale our population most likely controls itself, in relation to the carrying capacity of the physical and psychological environments we occupy. Human productivity growth is based on the size of our population which has achieved some basic standard of living. It could be possible there is a population sink that can form, where the population growth is greater than productivity grows the region's carrying capacity. Keeping people perpetually stuck in poverty and those who would normally stay improving standard of living find it easier to leave. As parents we should guarantee the basic necessities so our children can start out standing on our shoulders not our feet. This is the process of exponential growth fiat as stolen. In most families today the children are being born at the same or less standard of living than the parents generation. Forced to focus on smaller problems not greater. Obviously bitcoin fixes this but even more. Bitcoins effect on population very interesting topic.