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This is one of those times when I think the best course of action is to MYOB. I have two children. My brother has none. My children are split. One wants a family. The other does not. I keep my nose out of it. They are perfectly capable of making their own choices.
But in America, here, we are told we aren't reproducing enough by the people that advocate for a never-ending flood of migration to make up for this lack of reproduction by our intelligent members of society. Then we import people that are less intelligent. Do you see how this is contradictory on every level?
.
Who is telling you this?
This thread just went from a family complaint to a world view discussion.
No one should get a vote about whether anyone else should reproduce or not.
Since when did children ever listen to their parents? If anything, parents telling kids not to have their own kids would probably be an incentive for them to have them. Reminds me of the Catholic priests who told us teenage boys that masturbation was a sin. That really impressed us - NOT.
I'll bet the hairy palms made an impression, though.
All righty then. You have the right to your opinion.
My cousin is smart - he is an eagle scout (back when becoming an Eagle scout was still a true task), he was valedictorian of his HS, and he got a full ride through college to study biology.
So what? Many smart people peak in college and go on to achieve not-so-much. Especially if they remain rigidly enslaved by some extreme belief.
And he has told all four of his children not to have children of their own, and they have pretty much bought into his twisted rhetoric (only one of them, the girl, had a child).
Up to each of those adult children to reach their own conclusions about their purpose in life. If he has convinced them to follow his beliefs, that's on them.
How do you tell someone like this how poisonous this thinking is? The smartest, most productive people in society have bought into this de facto genocide they have had their minds infiltrated with, and we see the ramifications of that throughout society. It drives me mad.
Two words. You don't. Are you so disillusioned to think you're going to change his mind? Suspect you'll just end up bashing your head against a wall. Go spend your energy on more productive things.
We, humans, are the only species on earth that would tell our children not to reproduce. I think it is just so demonic and sad.
Re-read my first sentence. My more cynical side would remind you that there are plenty of other people who will produce offspring to fill in the gap. Hopefully, they'll raise those offspring to be decent humans. His kids may not be.
Oh, BTW, there are multiple non-human species that while individual parents may not be telling their offspring verbally not to produce young of their own, those future breeders can be influenced not to breed or to have smaller broods. Increasing cortisol levels and decreasing health because resources (food, water, shelter, mates) are degrading due to overpopulation. Humans have the ability to compensate for a poor environment and keep right on breeding.
Last edited by Parnassia; 10-01-2021 at 03:47 PM..
Speaking from my viewpoint only and recognizing that it, like all things we discuss in these threads, is nobody's business but theirs, here's what I think about the situation.
What your cousin thinks about grandchildren should be woven very carefully into years-long, ongoing conversations with his children keeping in mind that they have all power of choice. He may find he has caused pain and division by being so blunt with them. How will all this work if they DO have children? Will they feel unloved and unwanted? Will he feel as though his own children have defied him or challenged his role in the family?
Ultimately these issues shouldn't matter and all children, once they are here, need to feel valued and cared for. But we all know how these underlying tensions have a way of playing out in family dynamics.
For this reason I learned a long time ago not to tell my children what life choices they must make. But we did talk a lot about choices and possible rewards and consequences of each. And to be honest it wasn't difficult for them to figure out what I wanted them to do. I just wasn't able to insist on it.
I wanted grandchildren in the most desperate way. Now as they both approach their fifties unmarried it's obvious that is not going to happen. And like your cousin I have decided that that is probably the best thing for all involved.
I once told them if they didn't want children then, for heaven's sake don't have them. That would be a disastrous choice just to please me.
I agree with the OP that there is a generation coming up so far removed from the natural world and living with it's benefits and trials that their ideation seems nearly grotesque. And I will add self-centered.
I had a new dental appointment last week and mentioned I had been married for fifty-four years. The young man asked how we had accomplished that and I said that it requires cooperation and compromise and he made a face and answered that that sounded terrible. Heh.
I left thinking, "Dude, you are a smart man and probably going to make a lot of money but you sure don't know beans about human nature and what will ultimately give you happiness."
I truly stand by that thought in spite of all the reasonable arguments for serial partners and childless families. And the reason is that in my seventy-three years of living I've never seen so many unhappy young people.
I don't think it's working.
P.S. I'm not going back to that dentist. Not going to spend thousands to have someone working on me who doesn't understand the value of cooperation and compromise.
Hungary gives tax breaks to their citizens who have more children. Why don't we do that in America if we are suffering from "replacement rate" reproduction, or whatever it is they call it?
Why do we import people that aren't intelligent than advocate that the working class America have children of their own?
First, people with kids already get enough tax breaks, welfare, and government benefits. Second, the way the left has dumbed down the schools with ideas of equity and IQ being racist and unfair, combined with colleges being indoctrination centers of leftist dogma, it's not like kids domestically produced and raised are going to end up much better than their foreign counterparts, especially with the rise of single mothers and the gradual decay of the nuclear family.
How many are going to actually be our future engineers versus getting some gender studies degree and being straddled with lots of debt that daddy government ends up paying off...
Global warming, the general state of society, and overpopulation argue in your cousin’s favor. And why did he have kids anyway?
The urge to reproduce, rearing good people who can make a difference, and free choice argue in yours.
Do his kids take his opinion on this seriously? My parents told me a lot things that I used my own brain to determine if I would embrace those ideas or not.
His opinion is certainly not demonic and it’s a matter of opinion if it’s sad.
Sharing a opinion is different then ordering their kids not to have children.
My cousin is smart - he is an eagle scout (back when becoming an Eagle scout was still a true task), he was valedictorian of his HS, and he got a full ride through college to study biology.
And he has told all four of his children not to have children of their own, and they have pretty much bought into his twisted rhetoric (only one of them, the girl, had a child).
How do you tell someone like this how poisonous this thinking is? The smartest, most productive people in society have bought into this de facto genocide they have had their minds infiltrated with, and we see the ramifications of that throughout society. It drives me mad.
We, humans, are the only species on earth that would tell our children not to reproduce. I think it is just so demonic and sad.
I agree. Young adults should take in strays or adopt from a shelter. No need to keep populating this failed experiment called life.
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