To Breed Or Not To Breed
14 07 2008“One day, when all the non-breeders are sitting in their recycled-wood rocking chairs, having developed gout from too much red wine and good living, I trust my children will be working hard to keep the Earth in good nick. For their children.”
I just had to laugh when I read this line. Dream on. It will be interesting to see just how much of the Earth will remain to be kept in good nick given the procreation instincts of the pro-childed. it’s funny that people with kids seem to forget how much children consume… consoling themselves into thinking that the children will just find “environmentally friendly ways of doing things.” That sounds like the “mother” of all oxymorons. Having children is about as un-environmentally friendly as you can get. Being childfree is the biggest environmental statement you can make, but one reason not to breed and often not the main reason.
According to the pro-natalist, however humans must breed. But look at the tired reasons they give… old people (whom she says are well off but still need strong young ‘uns to keep them in the life they’ve become accustomed to). Actually, fewer of them are actually that well off, many are going to be working well into their old age and it will be toss up if they can even maintain their current living standards. Instead of prattling on about how humans must go forth and continue populating the world with “the right breed of konsumer kiddies” wouldn’t it be more prudent to advocate for systems to help people sock as much away as possible for their older years? But no. Having children will presumably solve that…
As always, the comments are revealing…along with the usual collection of bingoes – too many to mention – and those who think having children is a “duty, mandate, or a directive from God.
The childed still believe they can convince the childfree they have to breed oops – pro-create… they don’t seem to understand that we are comfortable with our decision… unlike them.
Check it out – your thoughts?
I laugh my ass off when breeders say that their kids won’t have an environmental impact because they’ll all grow up to be Planeteers. Bullcrap. Those brats are going to drive the same gas-guzzling SUVs, buy the same non-biodegradable bottles of tap water, and live in a gigantic McMansion so they can raise yet another generation of un-green kids.
And her kids will grow up to recycle their beer bottles. Well, that makes it all right then, doesn’t it? Never mind the exorbinant amount of resources they will use up in their lifetimes. We won’t discuss that.
Lame.
But Britgirl… children are the future!
I’m old enough to remember the last “green revolution” back in the early 90s. We all started using cloth bags and scrubbing the sinks with baking soda so the children could have a better world. That generation of children, who are now in their late teens and early 20s, appear to be the greediest, least-environmentally friendly generation yet. With their demands for $200 sneakers and new cell phones, X-boxes and assorted other do-hickeys year after year, as well as their insistence on wearing trendy clothes made in sweatshops, their existence is causing more environmental destruction than they could possibly ever fix.
The number of child-bearing adults who make a concerted effort to improve their habits with regard to energy use and general consumption of stuff because they have the forethought to look ahead to the future is negligible. Unless you live on a commune where you grow your own food, make your own clothes out of hemp, and give your kids chunks of wood to play with, having children in western society automatically makes you an ongoing consumer.
Let’s face it, people have kids because they want to, for their own reasons whatever those may be. Fine by me, as long as they don’t try to dress up their stance as some kind of covert eco-warrior operation, and especially as long as they don’t try to make out that I am somehow wrong or lacking in concern because - GOSH! - I haven’t seen fit to bring another small wailing creature into the world.
With such smug parents, no wonder the children are so delightful.
I’ve recently been debating whether or not I want to have children and I can’t decide, lots of pros and cons, I guess it comes down to whether or not my wife wants to have kids.
@propecia: uhh… no, it doesn’t. Kids should be wanted by BOTH parties! If you can’t decide, that means the answer is ‘no’, until further notice. To leave the decicion to your wife (so you can blame her when life gets turned upside down), is cowardly.
My thoughts.
Complete and utter BULLSHIT.
I’m sure every serial killer’s parents thought that their little spawn would be there to take care of them in their elder-years, too, but that just didn’t work out now did it.
*Headdesk*
Steph
I guess it’s all depend on the case…Too much children will raise up the population which in turn will impact the enviroment. But no children can cause population distinction. And what is most important is every parents are responsible to teach their children to save the environment. Birth control is also takes role here.
I came across this blog mainly by chance, but I am so glad to have found it! It is now firmly in my bookmarks, and is so refreshing to read. And it’s great to see another Brit thinking along the same lines - I was beginning to feel as though I was out on a limb!
I’m married, and childfree most certainly by choice. I am not entirely sure of the whole reason for it, but one of the biggest ones is my impact on the world. I cannot think of a more polluting lifechoice than having children. I’ve even suggested that to a few breeders, but as has been said before they dismiss it out of hand and say their kids will be the next breed of tree hugging eco-warriors. Err…no, they’re learning from you, and you have the 7 seat car, throw away a third of your food each week, give in to their every whim, buy them things they do not need, waste money and electricity on them, and you try to tell me I’m destroying the environment? Although, sometimes I do wonder whether some of these breeders even realise that a world outside their own little microcosm exists, because they don’t seem to watch the news and have no concept of any damage done to the environment.
Meh. I’ll step off my high horse now, and stop repeating what has already been said!
Oh. Dear.
Sentences like the one you quoted BritGirl just make me want to rip my hair out…! Lies. ALL LIES!!!!!
She (Adele Whateverhername) is just so bloody presumptuous isn’t she?!
MY children are going to grow up and be model citizens… (has she ever watched BratCamp?! Any kid can end up being a screwball no matter how well parented)
MY children will be saving the world from environmental disaster because they’ll recycle a few beer bottles once a month…*rolls eyes*… (as everyone else has already pointed out… utter bull …next she’ll be telling us they’re gonna walk to the recycle point too. Urgh.)
If it wasn’t for so many people breeding, the world wouldn’t be so f-ed up.
Her good intentions (on behalf of her children) count for squat.
What is she doing for the environment…? I bet she can’t say her carbon footprint is zero.
I’m CF and mine certainly isn’t. You’d think I’d have the time to knit myself an undyed, organic, wool jumper rather than buying one from a sweat shop, but I don’t, so she can’t get around to doing much for the environment having kids…
Oh, and I nearly wet my pants laughing when I read this from Sheryl
“and give your kids chunks of wood to play with…”
LOL! That made my day!
To be honest, I’d really have reservations about the sort of world our kids are going to have in 20, 30 and 50 years time. I don’t think I’d want to be growing up in it, and I don’t think that a few conscientious parents are going to even make a dent on a planet rapidly being run in to the ground by rampant consumerism, competition for resources, and selfishness and ignorance on the part of everyone in it.
The good old days are gone, and the current bratty and self absorbed generation is not going to be bringing them back. You’ll be lucky if they pay for the rest home, rather than letting you starve or freeze to death in your pensioner flat … and they’re going to save the world? Yeah, right.
I won’t talk about the merits - environmentally - of having or not having children. What struck me about the comment in the post was what it said about being a parent. Is it really so joyless in the present that they have to convince themselves that they know their child will turn out exactly as they want and make up for their own lack of lasting accomplishments? Is it that it won’t make them happy for the forseeable future, and they can’t exactly send them back, so they have to tell themselves that they are doing an amazing thing for the earth?
Oh, and Kat, the good old days never existed. Please don’t label all yung people as selfish and irresponsible.
I don’t think any planting or recycling will make up for the pile of disposable diapers left by Adele Hamilton’s, or any other breeders, offspring. If she made the sacrifice to use cloth diapers then maybe her children have the chance to leave a negative footprint on our society, but somehow I don’t think they will leave the planet without leaving some negative mark.
Every single generation consumes more than the previous. It’s a simple fact. Even with trying to limit my consumption, I still consume more resources than my parents did 30 years ago, and they consumed more resources than their parents did 30 years before that…and they were filthy hippies. Raising your kids to use cloth bags, turn off the lights, compost their food scraps and drive less won’t make an iota of difference when they’ve filled their new homes with electronic equipment which uses power even when it’s “off”, when they’re on to their 30′th pair of plastic crocs, when they throw out the old cell phone for a new one, when every single thing they buy is shipped several hundred miles and comes wrapped in plastic.
I don’t know if you have seen this link - it’s sort of half off topic for this post, but nonetheless, perhaps this was two people who should not have done any breeding?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1035641/Boy-2-dies-baking-hot-car-parents-shopping-forget-him.html
How can you forget?!!? My mind truly boggles.
Propecia, Please tell me you didn’t do this! I think you are making a grave mistake. I have a friend who doesn’t want to have another child after all the hard work from the first one and his wife bribed him into the second child. How? With a camera. He wouldn’t even think of hating her later and blaming her because he is a good guy but shit happens.
Hi everyone, I love this website and am thrilled to read each entry. It is very refreshing and I’ve always enjoyed a brit’s views over the western world because it isn’t a candy coated view. Everyone wants everything to be neat and tidy to swallow without reality attached to it or not spoken at all. Bull shit is right.
I went to this website just listed above me and it is tragic but happens all the time in the US.
I have to laugh to myself when people hark on about “doing their bit to save the environment” complete with a brood of kids or about to have one or more. I don’t know if it’s that they don’t get it, or that they don’t want to face the facts, that they are actually doing more damage than they could ever prevent with recycling or whatever.
Irishgirl - well, they have to have some way to convince themselves they did the right thing. But if everyone’s child is “The One” then where do so many of the awfully misbehaved and sometimes criminal brats come from?
Feh -and don’t forget the cell phones… seems every child has to have one.
Soldaka… ah but that’s just what they do. No one admits they have children just because they want to. That would be admiting the selfishness of it all and then what would they be able to call us??
I think a lot of people are scared that they made the wrong choices, sacrificed too much, and in return have ungrateful, useless brats who run off to college and then sullenly grace with their presence at holiday time, gunning for gifts. They see us, with our nice bodies, nice homes, sexy marriages, large retirement savings, and vacations all over, and they can’t admit that we chose wisely. So instead they go on and on with strange, irrational and pathetic arguing that just isn’t true. Frankly, I wasn’t put on this earth to suffer, and I live life well. That doesn’t sit well with people who are struggling to pay bills, clean hideous and cluttered homes and shout at their spouses to take the bloody kids off their hands. They see people like me heading to the gym, and they resent me. They ask how was my weekend, and they resent that it was great, while theirs was a blur. They have to make stuff up to elevate themselves, otherwise they’d have to shoot themselves.