memes

I'm a currently childless man who may continue to be childless. Sometimes I think about teaching as a means to contribute to the betterment of society.

That’s a funny way to frame it 😄 At the end of the day, everyone’s just choosing the life that fits them best—and there’s room for all kinds of happiness.

Thank you for your service. Please continue engage in weird, wonderful, time-absorbing hobbies in my honour.

What if my hobby is breeding?

It's always a bit surreal to see people insist "As a childless adult, I get to have hobbies while you don't" when - as a childed adult - I find myself picking up hobbies I'd never even considered before kids.

My little guy stumbles on things and gets into them, needs some help, and suddenly we're both neck-deep in a jigsaw puzzle or a TV series or a train kit or a pile of half-painted miniatures.

This is important and highlights some problems with trends in the modern world. At one point, we had an agreement that the average family would sacrifice 40 labor hours to the economy in return for enough resources to sustain a family. Now it's 80.

Parents should have plenty of time to engage in childish pursuits alongside their kids. It's natural, traditional, healthy and constructive to multi-generational, extended family households. I know that's not what everyone wants, but I feel like it should at least be an option.

It should be okay for a person to work 20 hours per week. We have the technology to make that sustainable. If someone wants to work 80 to accumulate luxuries for themselves, I think that's fine, too. What I hate is observing people being forced to live in poverty while working 40+ hours. I am aware that almost no one working full time is below the federal poverty limit, but that's because it's a nonsense metric. It's unconscionable that anyone should have to live in poverty in the modern world, but it's insane that full-time wages don't necessarily cover the cost of living.

I believe this creates a situation which raises children without a sense of community outside of work, and now we're watching them burn down the village as 70-year-olds. There's a saying about how bad times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create weak people, and weak people create bad times. I don't believe it for a second. Strong people and peoples are those with strong social bonds. They needn't be biological. Screwed up families exist and it's okay to get away and find a real family elsewhere.These communities create good times, which create even stronger people.

So therefore, go and do silly things with kids. Play Minecraft or Fortnite or kick-the-can or hide-and-seek, sing baby shark, or watch Bluey. Not just because our future depends on it, but because it's fun. We are supposed to be happy as a minimum standard. Not all the time, but at least as an average. It's not even the goal of life; it's the method. We're supposed to enjoy doing constructive things. That's how positive reinforcement works, and the current system is not only failing to acknowledge that, but it's diverging from it.

Go and be childish.

You ever see the futurama episode what that slug was forced to party all the time.

It’s like that

Having to maintain a population is a kinda bizarr (hopefully not racist) concept. Humanities problem is not that we're dying out because there aren't enough humans ...

As a childless adult, it's my duty to be part of other people's lives and support families by being a trusted adult (trusted by parents and kids) and be a good role model for others' kids.

Why? Because we live in a society. Today's kids are tomorrow's adults. There are, unfortunately, a lot of terrible social influences out there, and parents can't battle society alone. Young boys and girls need to learn and develop healthy relationships with men and women alike, beyond just their parents, in order to have something to model themselves after and to learn how to treat others with love and respect.

And this is especially so for singletons. A lot of the bad and warped ideas about "relationships" and even self-esteem comes from unhealthy views of romantic relationships. Ideas like if you're not good enough if you don't have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Or ideas that men and women cannot "only" be friends (objectification of other sex). Ideas that men are owed relationships and sex by women (incels). Ideas that it's better to be with a bad partner than to be single (abuse).

Parents can't fight all of that on their own.

Ah yes, the modern version of the "I hate my wife"-joke.

As a childless person myself, I can tell you that I rarely have the energy to "go have fun" after a long day of work. In fact, I prefer to just be at home and be a boring, basic bitch.

I can also tell you that almost every parent I know, and I know many because almost everyone my age have kids, are super active and do all kinds of fun things with their kids all the time. Especially those whose kids have gotten older and less dependent. It is a big, big, big misconception that parents never have fun. They do. A lot. They travel, go to parks and museums, theaters, circuses and talks with child entertainers. They take part in local community activities like sports and arts and whatever else is out there and they bond with the other parents who also wish to build a good community for the kids.

I have also seen how efficient parents are with time management. Not because they were born with that skill, but because they HAD to get good at it, so they pretty much never have a boring day ever. Are they tired and exhausted? Yes. Do they sometimes wish for a break from the kids? Also yes. But I would wager a guess that they all have lives that are tenthousand times more exciting than or many other childless people do. Not that it is a competition. Personally, I like the boring life where I get to do whatever I want without interruptions. I like that I get a break from other people because it overwhelms me to be around more than three people for long stretches of time. That just how I am and that is why I'm childless.

But I in no way feel superior to parents pr have this childish preconception that parents' lives suck. You can only have that opinion if you're never around people who have kids.

Sorry for being a party pooper, but I really, really hate this stupid joke and I hope it soon goes out of style and becomes something we look back at and cringe at in the same way we do with "I hate my wife"-jokes.

As a man with 2 young kids, yes. Yes you do. It's an obligation for you to enjoy the free time as much as you can. I rely on my childless friends to fill me in on what's happening in the cultured world, because for me my life is nothing but Bluey, Paw Patrol, and Cocomelon.

As a working parent, I ask that you consume my work product as you nobly chillax.