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Kid-free zone here. I don't hate them but I dislike being around them. I also dislike those parents who mollycoddle their kids and think they can do no wrong. I am thankful every day to be in a loving kid-free marriage.
I am more of a cat person. As others have said, I don't find kids to be cute at all. Cats, on the other hand, I find quite adorable.
I like them in ones or twos but give me three or more and I can't handle the noise. Also, I wish more parents would realize that there are plenty of places kids shouldn't be. Don't miss that C-D thread with people who maintain that it's no problem to take kids to a bar. Not a restaurant that serves alcohol ... a BAR.
i kid you not i saw a baby once that looked like a persian cat with messed up eyes. It was the weirdest thing. she grew into a normal looking toddler, but yikes those infant years were rough.
Kids after age 5 or so become fun. You can reason with them and have light fun with them. Babies and toddlers are little more than excrement machines that require near constant attention.
I like babies before they can walk and talk. After that, other than my relatively well-behaved niece and nephews, I don't need to see them again until they're 15 or 16.
I saw a single friend recently who'd decided at the age of 40 to get artificially inseminated and have a child. She had never been around kids and doesn't have a clue how to handle her year-old boy. They came to visit me; the kid started hitting his mother and kicking my dog. Spare me the brats. I was talking to her on the phone one day when her son apparently bit her on the ear. Her response was "He's going through a biting phase." Spare me. In my house, there'd be no such thing as a "biting phase." There'd be one bite, and then the kid would quickly learn the punishment for a bite is swift and sharp. But since I can't discipline the kids on behalf of the parents, I'll simply avoid them.
Holy crap! A 'biting' phase???? That crap wouldn't fly here, either, and I don't care how old the kid is!! If you're old enough to bite, you're old enough for a pop in the mouth.
I'm 52 and I remember to this day a kid I used to play with in my neighborhood when I was little. We were about 4 or 5 years old. He got mad and bit me on my forearm. He bit me hard and there was even a little blood. I punched him square in the face! (and I'm a girl) He NEVER did that to me again! He did it to other kids, but not to me!
I side with the OP; there are some of us who just don't have the patience to constantly deal with the irrationality of a young child, and this was something I noticed in myself at an early age,
I'm just thankful that I have many friends who can understand this; some of them do have children and I've found it much easier to bond once they reach a certain stage of development. But up until that stage, the wall between us can be very difficult to scale.
Parenthood isn't for everybody, but I was also lucky enough to have formed a close bond with a well-educated bachelor uncle at an early age, and he became the role model for filling some of the gaps in later life.
He was to live to the age of 92, and I was fortunate to be able to buy his house, in which I spent many of the happiest days of my childhood, from his estate.
Thanks, Unc! You are not forgotten.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 02-24-2014 at 11:04 PM..
Reading many of these responses makes me realize once again, that preschool teachers are vastly underpaid. When I was in high school, I worked 3 hours a day after school as a preschool teachers' aid, and the first week I worked there I got home at 6 and promptly fell asleep without having enough energy to eat dinner.
Up until a few years ago, I had only raised four-legged "children". Then I inherited several grandchildren through marriage, all of whom (so far) live under the same roof. Combine their exurban location with my quasi-urban sensibilities and it's like Bizarro World when we go out to visit them. I love the grandkids but I'd rather take them on two at a time.
Having kids is LIFELONG WORK, not a walk in the park. So don't worry about it.
One never has it quite figured out, either. You learn, and continue to learn, as you go. And you make mistakes, and continue to make mistakes, as you go.
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