Anti-Child Society

[The Lesbian Flower]

In the United States today, fewer and fewer births are occurring. The birth rate is lower than in the time of the great depression. There are several different explanations/theories for this: 1) Times are tough, cant afford kids 2) More frequent use of contraception 3) (perhaps the biggest of all) Adults do not want to have children.

There are many couples who choose to live childless by choice. There are adults who want to enforce "brat bans" on public places like restaurants, shopping centers, and on airplanes. There has actually been a ban of children and babies from a first class cabin on one airline and children are only allowed to ride in coach.

My question is this: What do you think is the cause of this anti-child/anti-baby society?

In my opinion, I believe people are starting to finally break away from the social conformity that comes with having a child. People are expected to reproduce at some point in their lives and not doing so usually carries a great stigma to it. I think the faster we can get over this stigma, the faster we can build a better society where people can choose to live the way that they want.

In case it's hard to tell, I absolutely loath children. I'm all for the "brat bans" and would take it so much further if I could. I do not plan on ever having kids and decided that when I was very young. I'm anti-baby and anti-children, though not simply because they scream and carry on in public, there's a deeper reason. I'm also anti-parents who couldn't care less about their screaming child. For all those who wish to argue "It's different when you have a kid", there's a reason I don't have a damn kid.

If you want to read a little more about it:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/kids-arent-alright-133624
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2011/08/11/pf/recession_birth_rate/chart-birth-rate-2.top.gif
http://www.thechildfreelife.com/

 

[Saelune]

Maybe people are just adopting more? I doubt it, but playing a bit of devil's advocate here. You just said that birth rates are low, not family rates.

 

[cryogeist]

well...im my opinion...we also need to think about over population..so...(at the moment anyway) is it a bad thing birth rates went down? (i feel like this is a stupid thing to say)

 

[Kodachi]

It's funny. I work with kids all day and while I understand that yes, kids can be annoying, I generally find them still much more... eh let's say mature than the majority of adults I deal with.

I find it disheartening that kids, who haven't had as long of time to develop moral and logical reasoning as adults get "banned" from let's say a restaurant but I can still watch a full grown adult in that same restaurant whine to the waiter/manager that his bill is too high simply because he neglected to either read the price on the menu or add it up properly.

We blame kids for acting like monsters but once the reach some arbitrary age then all that douchebaggery gets re-branded as "thrifty" or "skilled manipulator" or "charismatic". Adults possess all the same traits as kids yet we value them as adults and undermine them as kids? Interesting.

 

[FernandoV]

I think they're just a club of childless enthusiasts. I'm not sure of their activism but hopefully they aren't looking down on people with children, it's fine if they want to concentrate people who don't want children in their group though.

 

[imperialus]

From a demographic standpoint too having a population decrease over a generation can be a very bad thing too... Nearly every pension, social security, old age security fund ect relies on a pay it forward method where the current working generation pays to support the retirees. If you have a smaller generation trying to support a larger one as we're about to see with the baby boomer glut that's going to hit the 60+ range it causes all sorts of problems. Old folks ain't cheap for a society. Look at the 15+ years of economic stagnation that we've seen in Japan for a prime example. Immigration helps (quite a bit actually) but that is a freaking hot potato in and of itself.

I think a major cause for the reduction in family sizes we've been seeing over the past 20 years is the fact that it is now almost expected that both parents work. Even in the 70's and into the 80's the idea of a stay at home mom was not unusual. Now it is.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

well...im my opinion...we also need to think about over population..so...(at the moment anyway) is it a bad thing birth rates went down? (i feel like this is a stupid thing to say)

Ideally, you want a balance between kids being born and people dying. The problem with countries with low birth rates is that there tend to be too many old people. It's already a problem with social security that we have less people working for people receiving benefits. The system works fine when 10 people are working for every retired person. Not so well when it's two people working for every person not.

 

[Maxtro]

When education goes up, birth rates go down.

BTW, the minorities are the ones who seem to have the most kids. At least in the US.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

I don't know, I hate kids and don't think I could completely care for one, but for some reason I want at least one of own. Maybe it's been programmed into me or something ,but I just don't like the idea of letting my family line end with me.
PLUS I think the way children are raised is pretty important. Annoying kids usually spawn from shitty parents. Another thing, there should at least be a limit to children. I'd like to see a system that requires you to have a license of some kind to have a child, and a one or two child limit.
Idk, just thinking out loud...

 

[The Lesbian Flower]

I don't know, I hate kids and don't think I could completely care for one, but for some reason I want at least one of own. Maybe it's been programmed into me or something ,but I just don't like the idea of letting my family line end with me.
PLUS I think the way children are raised is pretty important. Annoying kids usually spawn from shitty parents. Another thing, there should at least be a limit to children. I'd like to see a system that requires you to have a license of some kind to have a child, and a one or two child limit.
Idk, just thinking out loud...

There is the One Child Act in China. However, that act led to the unequal ratio of males to females as males were preferred over females. This might not be such a problem in the U.S. because of men and women having equal opportunities and such but you just never know what society is going to demand next.

 

[emeraldrafael]

You always get low birth rates in civilized countries with high life expectancies. Actually, thats a trend that started in Europe before it got really popular here.

So Im going to say advancements in the health of individuals. a national average age of 70 something may not seem high, but its still impressive enough.

 

[blaqknoise]

Brat bans? Really?

To be honest, that sounds absolutely pathetic.

 

[dystopiaINC]

over population is only a problem in places like Africa, India and China, places like japan are having the opposite problem. and in a very many places that over population is a problem it's ofter a cultural thing, like how in both china and India males are preferred to females, so in china families might try to get rid of baby after baby until they get a son, and in India they JUST KEEP HAVING KIDS until they get a son, things would even out if each couple only had 1-2 children, but you could easily have a couple having 3-6 which is a problem when every other couple is having 3-6 kids as well.

 

[Pat8u]

people who want to ban children from things should be shot in the head then*censored* *censored*
I mean why are they under the assumption that every child is a brat??

 

[Ham_authority95]

In the United States today, fewer and fewer births are occurring. The birth rate is lower than in the time of the great depression. There are several different explanations/theories for this: 1) Times are tough, cant afford kids 2) More frequent use of contraception 3) (perhaps the biggest of all) Adults do not want to have children.

There are many couples who choose to live childless by choice. There are adults who want to enforce "brat bans" on public places like restaurants, shopping centers, and on airplanes. There has actually been a ban of children and babies from a first class cabin on one airline and children are only allowed to ride in coach.

My question is this: What do you think is the cause of this anti-child/anti-baby society?

In my opinion, I believe people are starting to finally break away from the social conformity that comes with having a child. People are expected to reproduce at some point in their lives and not doing so usually carries a great stigma to it. I think the faster we can get over this stigma, the faster we can build a better society where people can choose to live the way that they want.

In case it's hard to tell, I absolutely loath children. I'm all for the "brat bans" and would take it so much further if I could. I do not plan on ever having kids and decided that when I was very young. I'm anti-baby and anti-children, though not simply because they scream and carry on in public, there's a deeper reason. I'm also anti-parents who couldn't care less about their screaming child. For all those who wish to argue "It's different when you have a kid", there's a reason I don't have a damn kid.

If you want to read a little more about it:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/kids-arent-alright-133624
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2011/08/11/pf/recession_birth_rate/chart-birth-rate-2.top.gif
http://www.thechildfreelife.com/

It's because we have very high standards of living, especially for women. The birth rate is actually negative in Germany because they have it even better.

Since people aren't dying from starvation anymore, why plop out a bunch of kids when you could focus on your career or have fun in life? It's not a case of "anti-children", but more of an "I have better things to do since I can live past 75" mindset.

Places like Afghanistan are having a baby boom right now because half their population gets killed before 15. It's simple sociology.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I love kids (awaiting the FBI now), and don't see how anyone could truly hate them. Kids are the most important people on the planet and it's our responsibility to see to it that the world they inherit is worthwhile and make sure they grow up to be happy. But American families not having as many kids is nothing to worry about. Back in the day, people died a lot more so having more kids was necessary. Today, not so much, and society's attitude towards having kids reflects that.

 

[The Lesbian Flower]

I love kids (awaiting the FBI now), and don't see how anyone could truly hate them. Kids are the most important people on the planet and it's our responsibility to see to it that the world they inherit is worthwhile and make sure they grow up to be happy. But American families not having as many kids is nothing to worry about. Back in the day, people died a lot more so having more kids was necessary. Today, not so much, and society's attitude towards having kids reflects that.

Do you mean that it is "our" responsibility meaning parents' responsibility? Or "our" responsibility meaning society's burden? I would agree with the first one but not the second one. Someone else's kid is not my problem and I consider no child to be my obligation. And I'd hardly call kids the most important people. I don't think there truly is a most important people.

(I really don't mean this to sound nasty towards you. Those are just my feelings.)

 

[The Lesbian Flower]

The faster people stop having children, the faster the human race ends. I get what you're trying to say, but if birth rates dropped to the point of there being a huge influx of old people compared with other age groups in society which caused significant economic and social strain, something that dwarfed the baby boom of the 40s, 50s and 60s, then I wouldn't have any sympathy for those who didn't have children having to deal with this situation.

Another way to solve that problem without the need for insane amounts of babies would be to stop making tax payers responsible for the older generations of people. The only problem is that I have no idea how one would do that. I have no sympathy for people who think that having kids will solve problems for them or society.