"...mucking it up with one or more noisy, smelly, expensive, messy, self-centered ungrateful brats?"
This is what makes us parents angry at those who are childless by choice.
You were once a noisy, smelly, expensive, messy, self-centered ungrateful brat yourself, and yet here you are...
I don't mind if you say that you don't want to have children of your own because they require a lot of energy and care and time and money, but saying nasty things about children in general is just rude.
Are my children-
- Noisy? Sometimes.
- Smelly? Rarely. You probably smell worse, since children's sweat is basically odorless.
- Expensive? Only because we have them in daycare. If I had them at home, having the two of them would cost substantially less than the cost of a car each month.
- Messy? Sometimes, but even my almost-2 cleans up when reminded.
- Self-Centered? Sometimes, but aren't we all self-centered sometimes? I certainly didn't think it showed self-centeredness when my 3.5-year-old saw me crying and patted me on the back and said "shhh. it's ok mommy" Sometimes, she's the most caring and giving child in the world.
- Ungrateful - Yep, they're often ungrateful, but sometimes, you give them some tiny thing and they run at you to hug you and their gratitude is worth more than a thousand "thank you" notes.
- Brats - My kids aren't brats. Neither parent is career military. (I'm an army brat, so... that's what a brat is to me)
But don't dare badmouth my kids. Or my choices.
5 comments:
Well said!
And let's not get into people who think that every woman should be a stay-at-home mom and think there's something pathological about women who just don't want kids...I totally agree--you're all in when you have kids, and there is no 50%.
I like this post. :)
Jules - you're right. If you want to love a child and spend time with them and not be fully committed, be an aunt/uncle (or an honorary one). Then you can take them out for whole days at a time, play with them, enjoy them, even have them crawl into bed with you in the morning once in a blue moon, but if you're sick, you get to stay home.
No such deal for parents.
Interesting post. Their description of kids is why they didn't get into parenting in the first place: they can't stand 'em. Thank G-d they never became parents (or, it could be 'sour grapes' too...)
This, by the way, is also part of the beauty of grand-parenting: you are with the grand-kids for several days, or an outing, or a week--and then you are "off," doing what you need or want to do.
After all, you did your "time" in raising your own kids.
Now it's their turn!
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