So is one of the reasons that some parents resent it when their adult children don't end up having children of their own that their adult children are experiencing freedom that they didn't have at that same age because they were busy raising kids?
Do people feel invalidated if their own kids don't go through the labor & stress of raising kids?
There is SO MUCH resentment about raising kids, & it's weird how often that results in the demand that OTHER people have kids to validate one person's life & choices.
I understand that a lot of times even people who "chose" to have kids weren't fully free to make their own choices because of social pressures pushing & pushing them, but it drives me nuts when that resentment goes towards the child who is the only one involved in that scenario who had absolutely no input at all.
But also...that resentment should tell us that we need to make it easier to raise kids!
Caring for kids is a lot of work, & I would really rather it not be another huge pile of tasks for a couple people who are already exhausted all the time from all the other demands placed on them.
We as a society could do better...if only we could get away from the perspective that being human is primarily about the value you produce through labor.
An uncomfortably high number of people are on this planet for no reason other than that their parents felt pressure to have children.
That's it.
A lot of parents didn't want to have or raise children, but they did anyway, & now they are confused why these children they had entirely out of obligation & have always thought (& spoken) of as a burden don't call home anymore.
Artemis
Hannu
DragonBard
Taran Rampersad
Jackie