Childfree by choice #6 Sleeping well at night, petition for childfree flights

[Chocolategoggler]

I don’t hate children either. I like to think I hold everyone at the same level of public courtesy. I hate the fact I can’t go anywhere without someone else’s child impacting my day or experience. No one should be running around or screaming in a restaurant or doing anything that ruins it for other people. No one should negatively impact anyone in their own house etc with noise. No one should have to endure disrupted flights and ruined holidays. I shouldn’t have to step over anyone lying in the middle of a shopping centre or the supermarket. The problem with children is the “do what you want, wherever you want” is tolerated and encouraged in many areas so it’s just the norm now. Businesses etc are too afraid to say anything. A family having a meal out wouldn’t appreciate me running around their table and screaming at the top of my lungs… so I’d just like that courtesy to be returned

On the rare occasion one of us has done that the child has looked at us like we were deranged.
My mum used to always ask where are the reins? as she had us lassooed with them when we were children.

 

[ATV2021]

I like hamsters! I don’t want my own one though

They're a bitch. Awake all night chewing and squeaking round on a wheel. God no

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

I must be really weird then. I go to Chester Zoo as often as I can with just my husband!

Me and my husband do the same! We are members, it’s a lovely place for a walk & a picnic and then we sometimes go to Cheshire oaks after for a meal!

We’ve been slagged off loads for it. I don’t think kids appreciate zoos personally!

 

[Blond3g1rl]

Mum Sparks Debate After Asking Child-Free Colleague To Work Her Christmas Day Shift | TOTUM

A woman has sparked a debate online after revealing she had asked her child-free colleague to withdraw a leave request and work her Christmas Day shift for her.

www.totum.com

Of course it's on MN and of course the child has needs but...does childfree mean you're not allowed to have Xmas off work

I posted about this thread when it was ‘live’ it had pages and pages of responses.

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

@Rippedjeanmaybe it sounds like you're super close to me, I "know" you from a couple of threads from here, it's a shame there is no DM functionality.

Possibly yeah!
Yeah it’s all very secretive on here probably so that the “influenzers” don’t come armed with pitch forks!

 

[LaBlonde]

this is a really nice post but also the urge for me to make a joke about my own un-tended fandango right now is unbearable

I work part time and people are so confused when it’s not because of children!! Weekday drinks are the BEST!

FANDANGO

weekday drinks are absolutely the best. i am so jealous of you working part time, what a dream!

 

[TheCatsMeow]

I would never wish any harm on a kid but I openly admit I do not like children. The same with hamsters, I do not want one, do not like one but would never harm or wish harm on one.

Oh my god, I love hamsters! Totally hate kids though

 

[penny1992]

Some stores here allow dogs and I take mine to them. He is well trained though, in fact most of the dogs I see in stores are very well behaved. Better than the kids may I add . Because it can get down to -40 here in winter, it is actually a blessing that some stores allow dogs in... It's a way for them to get stimulation and "exercise" in really frigid weather.

 

[Saddlesoap]

For a few years now I've been going to a safari park (like Longleat) for my birthday with my Dad, and I've been told by numerous people that it's "weird" because it's "for kids"

I must be really weird then. I go to Chester Zoo as often as I can with just my husband!

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

Last time I went to the zoo with my niece and nephew, they just wanted their tablets the whole time!

Exactly this! The majority of the kids we see when we go to Chester zoo are whining that they are bored, they just don’t appreciate anything. I’m happy to see the animals asleep, but these kids want to see performing monkeys! I wish they did adults only days!

I love Cheshire Oaks and I wish I could go in the play area cause it looks so much fun

Me too! They had nothing like that when I was a kid!

 

[ATV2021]

Only if you don’t have any money or assets. Otherwise they force that on the family as we have experienced. This is why have POA is so important for family, I already have it for my parents in their 60s just I case.

Always best to have your plans and arrangements made in advance.

As said above, if they lack capacity and going home would cause significant harm or risk of, SS can get input from Court of Protection and overrule any POA or advance decisions made. Obviously they need evidence etc but that's what can happen.

 

[Pebbleybeach]

Nothing gives me greater joy than the mumsnet thread on here but tbh that isn’t about parenthood per se, it’s more because the posters on mumsnet are surely a social experiment or completely demented if real. But I wouldn’t be going on an actual parenting/children based thread and posting all about my fantastic childfree existence. Maybe I’ll start, just to rub salt in the wound

I think 10% of the posters are real and the rest are trolls, journos and mumsnet staff and unfortunately the 10% of real people are a mixture of angry, very weird and normal and the normal ones are drowned out by the angry, the weird, the trolls, the journos and the staff!

 

[shadowcat5]

I took my nephew to his swimming lesson this despite him not paying the slightest bit of attention to the teacher and messing around in the pool, it was nice to watch him. But oh my god other parents are so tedious! Fortunately some other poor cow got sat between me and SmugMum so I didn't have to take the brunt of it but in the half an hour I was sitting there I got full chapter and verse about her little darlings!

Mum next to me commented how her daughter was the oldest in her class, SmugMum said “oh I do wish Poppy had been born before Christmas but I was just sooooo relieved to get pregnant I didn't mind" Oversharing much? I'd known her 15 minutes! Then she had second child on her knee who kept smiling at me so of course you have to smile back, then I got "oh Daisy are you giving away all your smiles today?!" I just wanted to throw myself in the pool fully clothed to get away from it all!

we all know a SmugMum as well

 

[shadowcat5]

There was an interesting thread over on that parenting site this morning, where a woman posted about her friend who allegedly sabotaged contraception twice on her husband (who made it clear he didn't want children) and now friend is upset that he is emotionally uninvolved in child-raising.

Some of the responses were very prickly towards the OP (how dare she post that about a friend, the man should have gotten a vasectomy after the first kid) which makes me wonder how many of them are contraceptive saboteurs themselves to have such a visceral reaction to the OP, when the content is more horrifying.

I think a lot of women see it as justifiable as they are the ones that do the 'work' in pregnancy and labour.

There was a girl in school with me who told everyone that her mum did that. Her mum was quite young (i think 19 or something?) and her dad was about 10 years older. Mum came off the pill but didn't tell dad until baby was about a month old because by then (I quote) 'he loved her'. This girl was laughing telling this story and wasn't happy when I brought up the fact that she was literally made through the deception and that her father was basically stuck with her.

ETA: In hindsight (i was about 15), I probably should have been a bit nicer to her cause it wasn't her fault but the way she was laughing about it like that wasn't essentially SA and I just remember being so outraged by it. Obviously now I'd approach it differently.

 

[ATV2021]

Childfree by choice #7 Parents: not everything is about you

@mediocrehouseplant has the winning title people. Also @LaBlonde & @Platformcrocs Continue 🙃 Previous thread: https://tattle.life/threads/childfree-by-choice-6-sleeping-well-at-night-petition-for-childfree-flights.35803/

tattle.life

New thread!
---

(Also requested its made #7 lol)

 

[mousey]

Me and my husband do the same! We are members, it’s a lovely place for a walk & a picnic and then we sometimes go to Cheshire oaks after for a meal!

We’ve been slagged off loads for it. I don’t think kids appreciate zoos personally!

kids 100% don’t appreciate zoos. They only seem to enjoy the playgrounds that are there usually. I often see parents desperately pointing out the animals to bored children who I guess aren’t used to seeing animals just acting normal and not dancing around I guess.

I do love a zoo though, my only issue is that I can never really find people to go to zoos with, is it weird to go on your own?

There is a farm place near me which has banned adults going by themselves incase they are paedos

Hahaha well I guess this answers my question above

 

[JoeBloggs]

Random q... But do you think having children is a privilege or a right...?

I think privilege is an interesting term but I certainly do not think it is a right.

 

[OatMatchaLatte]

I actually think I’d likely have mental health problems if I was to get pregnant. I’ve just always had this feeling that if I was to get pregnant and have a baby that the hormone changes and mental stress would actually push me into a breakdown. I struggle enough with my hormones as it is!

Same here. I'd also be SO worried about what I was eating, whether I was exercising enough / too much, how every single choice I made would affect the baby. It would be too much for me.

 

[pinkmug]

I'm not interested in the regret stories either. There's other places they can talk about that.

Yes, I can understand that. It was interesting for me that one time but I also wouldn't want this thread to become a confessional for every parent who wishes they didn't have kids.

 

[penny1992]

I live round the corner from an ikea so I can go in the week late at night just before closing. Which is great because there’s usually no kids!

I wish restaurants did adults only times. When I was a kid (90’s/00’s) I was never taken to restaurants. That was something adults did . I went to wacky warehouse on occasion, but that was it.

I went to restaurants as a kid but I had to behave. Of course there was no screen devices then, I remember restaurants would give out a puzzle/drawing for the kids

I was lucky enough to eat out a lot as a child (born to older parents who were not changing their lifestyle for kids!) Although mainly lunch time so as not to impact adults enjoying an evening meal. I also think that kn the 90s kids just weren't accepted in restaurants of an evening??

We would always sit quietly and maybe colour or draw. If we were the only people in our local Indian on a Saturday lunch then we would be allowed to play by the water feature (proper 90s) but if anyone else walked in it was straight to our table.

I distinctly remember being in a Chinese restaurant when the kids from another family were running riot and unwrapping all of the chopsticks. I asked my mum why they were being so naughty (eldest child who always does as she's told!)

I could be silenced by a look from one of my parents. Parents these days don't give a shit.

Bahahha my mum had a "look" too that I knew meant to behave