"Childfree" Term Angers the Childed

In the "comments" section following this pretty mild article about the childfree, some people with kids take offense at the very term "childfree" as insulting to their decision to have kids. Excerpts:

Well, childless does mean without children. The way you are stating it, you're making it sound as though children are a burden and people wish to be free of them. Childless is the correct way to say you have no children.

Wrong, sweetie. Childless usually means people who can't have children. Childfree means folks who chose not to have children. Am I making it sound like children are a burden? Are you tryin' to tell me your life got a lot easier after you had kids? Dope.

You are "a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report" and yet the word "childless" - meaning, "without children" - for you is somehow prejudicial? Your alternative, "child-free", which has a definite pejorative sense to it, implying that children are a burden, is your solution to this non-problem?

You are ridiculous. Your obvious insecurity with your childlessness and resultant defensiveness come through in every line of your seemingly elitist rant. I use the term "seemingly" because a lack of understanding of the common meaning of words and a hysterical attachment of personal baggage to the use of those words are hardly representative of behavior by genuine intellectual elites.

Defensive, much? Dope.

You claim to be "free." But you are "free" only in the sense that you are living off the patrimony of millennia without ensuring that the people who produced you continue. You dishonor your parents, and all your ancestors, by placing in jeopardy the legacy of generations whose culmination you are--and whose final end will be in you because you selfishly denied them the opportunity to continue their existence through the DNA they bequeathed to you. You are the worst kind of spendthrift wastrel, squandering not merely an inheritance of money, but an inheritance of all that you ancestors meant and all that they accomplished. Ultimately, on earth we are nothing more than what life we live behind. You have chosen to live nothing behind, and you have betrayed all who gave you breath.

What about Jesus? As I recall, he was childfree. Dope.

The comments section is a bit annoying since it keeps asking you to click for "more comments" but given the level of ignorance and rage displayed by the childed it's worth clicking for sheer entertainment value.

Why in the world would ANYONE care one way or the other if SOMEONE ELSE chose not to "pass on their family name", or "live on", or "honor their familial bloodline" by breeding? These comments and others like them just WREAK of racism and sexism.(when they "go" for the golden boy heir). Why do they CARE who or what peoples exist long after they are dead? I think it's unhealthy to get so angry at a choice someone makes which has absolutely NO, I mean ZERO effect on them, UNLIKE their decision to breed has on us all NOW, in the present and in our immediate future. If breeders lived in the here and now, and planned for the average lifespan of a human being and actually DID something instead of leaving some unknown "legacy" of great great grandpups behind to do it for them, I believe the world would be a better place for ALL of us who are currently living.

I care about my fellow humans, in general, but I don't give a shit about the unborn ones who can only be seen through a microscope and even then it's only a potential prehuman of sorts, IF THAT, with respect to all of their expensive IVF, fertility treatments, lifesaving pre/neonatal care so the "miracle" can be birthed. I SURE don't give a shit about the kids they HOPE to conceive in the future, NOR do I give a shit what color, race, creed, or religion people are OR what they do or how many "lives they MIGHT touch" when I am dead and gone. I doubt when my ancestors stepped onto American soil in the 1800's if they gave a DAMN about what my family or I would be doing in 2008. I say that the people of the future are on their own. If they can't figure out how to survive this "global warming", then so be it. I am not going to suffer and burn up in the Southern summer months and do without air conditioning so some great great great Indigo neice of mine can telepathically burn a blog into a chip about what a wonderful philanthropist her Aunt Kim was some 300 years prior.

I am not going to suffer and burn up in the Southern summer months and do without air conditioning so some great great great Indigo neice of mine can telepathically burn a blog into a chip about what a wonderful philanthropist her Aunt Kim was some 300 years prior.

[off topic for a sec]

Ah ha ha ha! I swear we have some killer writers on this forum*. I'm going to start collecting some of the gems that people write here. Almost every day I find myself admiring some turn of phrase someone writes here...

*yesterday for me the gem-o'-the-day was CFTeen writing, "Even as a confirmed 'fundie' I am literally sick to my stomach. You could float the entire United States Navy in the breeder Kool-Aid this lady has drunk."

[/back on topic]

WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING A SERIAL KILLER. Really. Was it that time i left one in your back yard? I'm sorry. The neighbors came home early. I did hose out the garage, though.

Most breeders live the fantasy of producing perfect species frolicking naked and happy in perfect paradise for all perfect eternity to come.

They're not living life anyway.

I posted a comment under the name Claire. Not my real name, of course.

I read some of those posts, how fucked up are some people?

And I am SO TIRED of the argument that, 'MY KIDS WILL BE PAYING YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY WHEN YOU ARE OLD.'

Jesus Christ in the morning! NO! I am paying into MY OWN Social Security benfit. What I will get is based on what I put in NOW. NOT what somebody's kids are going to be paying in.

Interesting comments.

A heaping shovelful of envy, with a few pounds of regret and double helpings of jealousy added.

Sucks to be moo/duhd.

Chris in VA wrote a good comment Aug 26, 2008 at 13:15:59 PM, called "Women are more than incubators":

"How utterly insulting to insinuate that the primary purpose in a woman's life is to breed! Who are these busybodies who think it's up to THEM to tell us we must reproduce?!

And spare me the "the human race depends on you" line. Population is over 6 BILLION and not slowing down. Even here in the US, population has risen 8.4% since the 2000 Census (source: US Census)--that equates to just about a 50% increase in just 40 years! Tell me again about this "doom and gloom" of the human race dying out?

Currently 20% of women do not reproduce--imagine how many mouths to feed we'd have on our hands if that 1/5 had succumbed to societal and "busybody" pressure and borne children? Schools and highways even MORE overcrowded, jobs even harder to find, taxes higher and higher to pay for all of the extra folks.

Some of these folks may wish to live in a country where the government can dictate to you how many children you "must" have (I believe Romania used to mandate 4 children per family--that would be the same country that, years later, had orphanages chock full of pitiful children whose parents couldn't support them, remember?) are free to move to a nation where this choice is taken out of the hands of the individual and they must "breed for the Motherland", but I for one, enjoy living in a FREE country where I can be childFREE!"

:yeah

Keep working more hours, CF people! Millions of breeders depend on us.

clematis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You claim to be "free." But you are "free" only in
> the sense that you are living off the patrimony of
> millennia without ensuring that the people who
> produced you continue. You dishonor your parents,
> and all your ancestors, by placing in jeopardy the
> legacy of generations whose culmination you
> are--and whose final end will be in you because
> you selfishly denied them the opportunity to
> continue their existence through the DNA they
> bequeathed to you. You are the worst kind of
> spendthrift wastrel, squandering not merely an
> inheritance of money, but an inheritance of all
> that you ancestors meant and all that they
> accomplished. Ultimately, on earth we are nothing
> more than what life we live behind. You have
> chosen to live nothing behind, and you have
> betrayed all who gave you breath.

Hi clematis, who ever come up with this quote (above) is full of crap.
"Claim to be free" - Free of what, the person have a kid have zero freedom, infact cost you life sentence to bring up a kid.
This person come up with this "family tree" bit dishonur parents and ancestors not to breed. Again BS. Continue my DNA in this hell world? Forget it. Also I agree Clematis, people should understand very well that Jesus was ChildFree.

KidFreeLuvnLife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I read some of those posts, how fucked up are some
> people?
>
> And I am SO TIRED of the argument that, 'MY KIDS
> WILL BE PAYING YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY WHEN YOU ARE
> OLD.'
>
> Jesus Christ in the morning! NO! I am paying
> into MY OWN Social Security benfit. What I will
> get is based on what I put in NOW. NOT what
> somebody's kids are going to be paying in.

There is nothing wrong with tax money pay for OAP (Old Age Pensions) becasue they worked so dawn hard when they were young Pensioners worked until they gone old and earned it. So what the hell are kids/breeders today are worrying about? Breeders don't earn a thing, they think they can get everything for nothing because they have a kid.

In the UK, pension money doesn't worth anything. Infact Pension income is so crap it you cannot live an anything.

Jeezus Kee-rist! I didn't think ANYONE used this sort of language anymore! Spendthrift wastrel? Sounds like something out of the "Purpose-Driven Life"! Defensive much, bitch? This is all breeder bullshit meant to attempt to make childfree feel like second-class citizens.

NO, trust me, the world does NOT want me to pass on my DNA. Ditto for
DW. And given the treatment of me by my biological parents when I was an infant, I do NOT owe it to them to pass on their genes--not that I do anyway. What the hell happens if the sole survivor of a lineage is sterile....yep, sorry paruhnts, but the line dies out.

As for Social Security, you dumb bitch, I have paid MY OWN in all these years....if anyone is sucking the system dry, it's these underage leeches collecting on the patrimony of their parents.

And whatever I get from my parents is mine to dispose of as I see fit. Jealous much? My parents only had one child and I benefitted. Sorry if this bitch came from a big family and didn't inhertit anything. Not my fault.

These wannabe forced breeders mak me SICK! They all come off as if they're pissed that they haven't had the commonsense or self-control not to breed in an already perilously overpopulated world. Of course, these are people who listen to an idiot like the pope who claims the world can support 10 billion or more. Maybe, but I sure as hell don't want to live on the kind of earth that would ensue!!!

KidFreeLuvnLife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I posted a comment under the name Claire. Not my
> real name, of course.
>
> I read some of those posts, how fucked up are some
> people?
>
> And I am SO TIRED of the argument that, 'MY KIDS
> WILL BE PAYING YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY WHEN YOU ARE
> OLD.'
>
> Jesus Christ in the morning! NO! I am paying
> into MY OWN Social Security benfit. What I will
> get is based on what I put in NOW. NOT what
> somebody's kids are going to be paying in.


I have to disagree with you a little bit about Social Security. This is an issue I have studied thoroughly for the last 10 years.

You are correct that what you receive in monthly benefits is based on what you are paying in now (and when you choose to receive benefits, and how many years you worked). However, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, which means the breeder is correct when she says her kids will be paying your SS benefits when you are old. The payroll taxes you pay today go to today's retirees, with any excess payroll taxes given to the US Treasury for the Congress and president to use however they please. There is no personal SS account with you name on it the way an IRA or 401(k) plan is owned by you. You have no legal right to SS benefits, as Congress can change the law (and they have) about how much you receive and when you can receive it. US Supreme Court decisions have affirmed this,

That being said, the moo's argument is misdirected. You did not set up the SS system this way, FDR and the Congress did. President Bush tried to reform SS in 2005 to include personal accounts (one of the few things I actually AGREE with him on) so that what you pay into SS DOES have your name on it, like an IRA or 401(k), but that effort failed. The moo should write a letter to her member of Congress (like I did, along with several ideas for improving the long-term fiscal solvency of the program) if she doesn't like it that her kids will paying your benefits. That is, if she can write anything resembling a coherent letter LOL!

Didn't someone once say SS was just a Ponzi scheme?

Since the social security is set up like deegee said and one generation basically "pays for" the next, that's something I would like to address. Since WE have all worked and most likely will pay in until we are 65 or so, WE have already done our part to "earn" OUR benefits, via paying the way for our elders. We are going on the assumption that THEIR kids will even GET a job and pay into the system. So far, the majority of this generation are getting social security disability payments ALREADY for these ADHD/ADD/AWTISM, disorders. The reason they get them is that have to have a doctor say that their "disability" has and WILL cause them to suffer a LIFETIME impairment, which of course means they will not be able to ever work OR pay into social security.

SO, going by that and doing some simple math, if their kyds continue to DRAIN social security, rather than contribute, it's likely that in 20-25 years when I am eligible to draw it, the tank will be empty. So, in ADDITION to paying the way for seniors AHEAD of me age/wise in life, I will ALSO continue to pay for the people BEHIND me age/wise, so where does that leave me and all of the other people who are currently in the 30-55 age group? I realize it's not a "pay as you go" system, but by paying for the generations ahead of us, it's basically the same thing and I WANT MY SHARE!!!!!

So, who does moo think is paying for the fancy new maternity wing in that hospital? The childrens-only hospital where your child can go to get care, while seniors and taxpayers are in gurneys in ER hallways because there's no bed for them? Who funds the schools, the arenas, the soccer fields, the community centres that your child attends and uses? Oh yeah, that would be MY taxes. I have no children and don't use any of these things, do I get to stop paying for them? I think not. So you bet your ass that your shitling should be paying for my social security, because that's payback, and that's the way democracy works. Here endeth the lesson, delivered with a clue bat, you selfish cow.

kidlesskim said: "So far, the majority of this generation are getting social security disability payments ALREADY for these ADHD/ADD/AWTISM, disorders. The reason they get them is that have to have a doctor say that their "disability" has and WILL cause them to suffer a LIFETIME impairment, which of course means they will not be able to ever work OR pay into social security."

This is an EXCELLENT point! So far as that goes, if SS is a pay-as-you-go system, childfree working people are now paying for (in addition to benefits for the elderly) those bulls*** benefits for, in many cases, concocted kids' "disabilities"!

I'm filing that li'l gem away and I swear if some breeder with a defective benefit-sucking child ever pulls that "children will be paying for you" bingo, I'll whip that tidbit of information out.

Catabat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, who does moo think is paying for the fancy new
> maternity wing in that hospital? The
> childrens-only hospital where your child can go to
> get care, while seniors and taxpayers are in
> gurneys in ER hallways because there's no bed for
> them? Who funds the schools, the arenas, the
> soccer fields, the community centres that your
> child attends and uses? Oh yeah, that would be MY
> taxes. I have no children and don't use any of
> these things, do I get to stop paying for them? I
> think not. So you bet your ass that your shitling
> should be paying for my social security, because
> that's payback, and that's the way democracy
> works. Here endeth the lesson, delivered with a
> clue bat, you selfish cow.


I wonder how they would like this idea; How about we completely abolish ALL forms of child welfare, especially and specifically including the aid for kiddie checks they get. Abolish social security at some point in the future, and let ALL of the CF's taxes that would have gone to finance their kid's schools, medical, parks, and of course their welfare and "disability" checks for ADHD/AWWTISM, and put that money that WE earn into a fund ONLY FOR THE CHILDFREE. Then, we won't NEED their shitlings to pay into anything because we can use our own money for OURSELVES, rather than pay for their kids's groceries (food stamps) schools, (taxes), living expences(their aid checks) their kyd's "disabilities(Social security money) and medical (more welfare). If we could have HALF the money in a savings account that we CURRENTLY pay for them to breed, there would be no need for social security. Problem solved.