The Invisibility of Childfreedom

The old Bob Newhart Show and Newhart both featured Bob Newhart as a happily childfree man married to an equally childfree woman. Too bad you have to go back to the 70's and 80's for those examples.

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JoJo
The old Bob Newhart Show and Newhart both featured Bob Newhart as a happily childfree man married to an equally childfree woman. Too bad you have to go back to the 70's and 80's for those examples.

Bob had to threaten to quit the 70s show because they wanted him to add a child to the mix after a few years, he said, "who's gonna play Bob?"

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cfuter

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JoJo
The old Bob Newhart Show and Newhart both featured Bob Newhart as a happily childfree man married to an equally childfree woman. Too bad you have to go back to the 70's and 80's for those examples.

Bob had to threaten to quit the 70s show because they wanted him to add a child to the mix after a few years, he said, "who's gonna play Bob?"

That. Is. Awesome.

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cfuter
In Homeland, when Brody's wife was preggers in real life, they digitally took her bloated belly out. Otherwise, they filmed her from the boobs up. You can tell she was preggers becuz her boobs were matronly swollen, and her face more filled out. The CGI was obvious to a keen eye when filming her from a distance.

But overall it worked, right? Just proof that "the character had to have a kid because the actress got knocked up" is bullshit.

I just realized this weekend the couple in Green Acres is Childfree. They had a ten yr anniversary and no sprogs. Also Honeymooners, both Ed and Ralph didnt reproduce w/ their wives of years and years. LOL

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cfuter
I just realized this weekend the couple in Green Acres is Childfree. They had a ten yr anniversary and no sprogs. Also Honeymooners, both Ed and Ralph didnt reproduce w/ their wives of years and years. LOL

Wonder how the Honeymooners pulled that one off before birth control was really a thing.

+++++++++++++

Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

We are out there, but unfortunately we get drowned out because breeders outnumber us so much. They think that they are doing something so interesting and unusual by having a kid, meanwhile, almost everyone I know has at least one. I can't stand breeders who create their li'l experiments and then think they are so funky and cool, cuz they have a kid. Join the rest of the party, moos and duhs. Don't forget to take a number at the door.

Crafty, a friend relates the yukky story of visiting some aunt and uncle in the 1950s. They lived in the country, which, remember, was VASTLY different from town life then. She had to use the outhouse, and found some strange rubbery items hanging up there!!! Turns out, in those days condoms,being real sheepskin or something back then, were relatively expensive back then. So they WASHED THEM OUT and reused them!! GGAAKK!

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reeniebessagain
Crafty, a friend relates the yukky story of visiting some aunt and uncle in the 1950s. They lived in the country, which, remember, was VASTLY different from town life then. She had to use the outhouse, and found some strange rubbery items hanging up there!!! Turns out, in those days condoms,being real sheepskin or something back then, were relatively expensive back then. So they WASHED THEM OUT and reused them!! GGAAKK!

Sheep gut, not skin. That's how they were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, and yes, they were reused. They cost about as much as a laborer's annual salary, back then.

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yurble

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reeniebessagain
Crafty, a friend relates the yukky story of visiting some aunt and uncle in the 1950s. They lived in the country, which, remember, was VASTLY different from town life then. She had to use the outhouse, and found some strange rubbery items hanging up there!!! Turns out, in those days condoms,being real sheepskin or something back then, were relatively expensive back then. So they WASHED THEM OUT and reused them!! GGAAKK!

Sheep gut, not skin. That's how they were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, and yes, they were reused. They cost about as much as a laborer's annual salary, back then.

Ugh! I must be weird because If I were a guy then I would have saved a lot of money and just used my right hand (sorry if too gross).

The only visible childfreedom, where i live, are articles about Finns not having enough kids and how they are going to die out. Add to that, journalists who make childfreedom look like a selfish choice, keeping your relaxed and vain lifestyle, avoiding responsibilities, in one word very judgy and making it look bad. Blaming women that they are too career centered, blaming the media because it pictures life with kids in a negative way, blaming people who choose not to have kids because of environmental reasons (Finland is way to small, our contribution to climate change is almost nothing).

In one of the latest breederific articles, some researcher from the Family Federation of Finland said that she understands people who do not want to get a job and live on unemployment money but she cannot understand people who do not want kids. A recent survey has also shown that young people started being very hostile towards couples who don't have children.

Because of this i started hiding behind my endometriosis. I don't have the courage anymore to say that i'm childfree anymore.

It sounds so oppressive, blackpearl. I'm seems that the brainwashing is working really well where you are. So what if childfreedom is selfish? Aren't breeders fucking selfish, making more and more DNA replicants that will pollute the earth and destroy our environment?

At least OUR selfishness doesn't involve bringing a whole new person into this fucked up world. If anyone did accuse me of being selfish for my choice, I'd tell them that I'm being really UNSELFISH by not having kids, for denying myself this INCREDIBLE experience of raising my own chyld, just so that the environment is saved a little bit for THEIR kids. I'd just throw it right back in their face and see what they say.

In the meantime, I will be enjoying my selfish life, in MY awesome house, driving around in MY Mercedes, with MY husband. IDGAF about what breeders think of me, because their opinion ultimately means nothing to me.

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mumofsixbirds
It sounds so oppressive, blackpearl. I'm seems that the brainwashing is working really well where you are. So what if childfreedom is selfish? Aren't breeders fucking selfish, making more and more DNA replicants that will pollute the earth and destroy our environment?

At least OUR selfishness doesn't involve bringing a whole new person into this fucked up world. If anyone did accuse me of being selfish for my choice, I'd tell them that I'm being really UNSELFISH by not having kids, for denying myself this INCREDIBLE experience of raising my own chyld, just so that the environment is saved a little bit for THEIR kids. I'd just throw it right back in their face and see what they say.

In the meantime, I will be enjoying my selfish life, in MY awesome house, driving around in MY Mercedes, with MY husband. IDGAF about what breeders think of me, because their opinion ultimately means nothing to me.

Finland isn't as progressive as their reputation claims, I feel for you living there blackpearl and think you have a good approach to their arguments.

The secret for us seems to be to not care if you're called selfish, as mumofsixbirds asserts. And her Mercedes stays clean unless her or her husband dirty it up! And even in the realm of selfishness you can choose to reduce your collateral damage (whether not having kids or abusing others). I have the time to do nice things for others that would not happen if I had all my free mental/physical real estate monopolized by kids. I used to have nearly all my mental/physical real estate occupied with working and surviving and it isn't fun to have to be so absorbed in one aspect of life, so I wouldn't make any lifestyle choices that would put me in that situation. I see kids as being the same way, all encompassing real estate that take over their parent's lives.

Everyone is selfish and everything we do is in our own self interest when it boils down to basics. The difference is that there are some people who chose to be self-aware about the selfish nature of humans. There are others who only point the finger at those who make different life choices and call them selfish but if anyone dares to state they may also be selfish they go on the defensive. I think there will always be a certain conflict for people who can't accept their selfish nature.

If you dare to bring environment and resources into question you are told to kill yourself. You can't argue with these idiots because they are so brainwashed they can't see beyond their own shadow. So i chose not to anymore, it's easier like that than destroying my mental health. Until now i shut them well saying i'm sick. I know it's basically deceiving but i'm not going to spend any more time to explain myself anymore because they just don't want to accept any other view than theirs. They listen to the media like it's the second Messiah.

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mumofsixbirds
It sounds so oppressive, blackpearl. I'm seems that the brainwashing is working really well where you are. So what if childfreedom is selfish? Aren't breeders fucking selfish, making more and more DNA replicants that will pollute the earth and destroy our environment?

Europe has been having a heatwave since early July. In some parts of Portugal the temperature reached 50 degrees (that's 122 for those of you in the US) which is above anything ever previously experienced in Europe. Fires have killed many people in Greece, and have been raging above the Arctic circle in Sweden. Only a complete idiot would deny that is the result of climate change.

This is what the world is becoming. It isn't going to be a nice place. I mean, we knew these things for a while, something like 40 years, but until recently it was relatively easy for people to stick their heads in the sand. Now we're seeing the consequences of decades of inaction on the environment. Not that I understood people who bred 40, 30, 20 or 10 years ago, but I really don't understand people who are breeding now, with direct evidence before our eyes of what's happening.

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reeniebessagain
Crafty, a friend relates the yukky story of visiting some aunt and uncle in the 1950s. They lived in the country, which, remember, was VASTLY different from town life then. She had to use the outhouse, and found some strange rubbery items hanging up there!!! Turns out, in those days condoms,being real sheepskin or something back then, were relatively expensive back then. So they WASHED THEM OUT and reused them!! GGAAKK!

Somewhat on topic, the CDC has had to make an official announcement recently telling people that they shouldn't wash and reuse condoms. I thought this was common knowledge! Must be that good old abstinence-only sex-ed at work.

Meanwhile, I saw a great CF moment in Parks & Recreation earlier. Jen Barkley, a very confident and spirited political campaign manager, tells new-ish parents Leslie and Ben, “I’m going to go spend my time doing exactly what I want to do because I don’t have children!" I bet that chafed a lot of breeder asses, but what I bet they didn't notice is that it didn't chafe Leslie's and Ben's asses. Why? Hectic as their lives are, they're actually happy with their decision to be parents and don't get offended by someone else not doing the same thing as them. When parents get offended over someone who doesn't want kids and is happy about it, it speaks volumes about how they feel about their choice to breed, in spite of the endless chorus of, "it's all worth it" pouring out of their face holes.

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yurble
Europe has been having a heatwave since early July. In some parts of Portugal the temperature reached 50 degrees (that's 122 for those of you in the US) which is above anything ever previously experienced in Europe. Fires have killed many people in Greece, and have been raging above the Arctic circle in Sweden. Only a complete idiot would deny that is the result of climate change.

Here we have lots of deniers. They usually go by the theory that climate has always changed.

We also beat the record at heat, some grocery stores opened their doors for people to sleep at night because the houses are built to retain heat and people do not even have air-conditioning. Surgeries had to be postponed because hospitals were too hot. And we also had forest fires, one of it was quite near where we lived. Two towns were left without drinking water and prices of food are going up now because of bad crops. But people still deny as just climate changing because that's what climate does. And it's always somebody else's fault because Finland is a small country s doesn't impact the environment so much. So besides the fact that they are stupid, they are also so narrow-sighted your mind explodes. "It's others fault not ours" mentality.

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blackpearl
And it's always somebody else's fault because Finland is a small country s doesn't impact the environment so much. So besides the fact that they are stupid, they are also so narrow-sighted your mind explodes. "It's others fault not ours" mentality.

That logic makes my head hurt. It's like saying that if someone puts poison in my coffee, I should not be concerned about drinking it, because the toxicity of my coffee isn't my responsibility. It may not be my responsibility, but it certainly is my concern!

As it happens, Europe does use a disproportionate amount of resources. Not as much as the US, but more than our share would be if everything was divided equally among all people and capped at a sustainable level. We are part of the problem.

But even if we were not, we all still need to work together on a solution. It isn't as if this is a problem which only affects those who cause it.