Reply to If you are a parent, how do you see people who aren’t?

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Reply to "If you are a parent, how do you see people who aren’t?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Back when I was single and childless, I had a colleague “confess” to me that she felt sorry for people without kids because she felt their lives would never have real meaning. I was shocked. I think she assumed it was okay to tell this to me because she assumed I would eventually have kids. But it’s one of the rudest things I’ve heard someone say. To write off entire lives that way as having no meaning?

Now I think back on her and I feel sorry for her. Because I’ve lived long enough to see the many ways life can have meaning and how limited her view was. And also how many parents don’t even get real meaning from parenthood because they are blind to it.

I don’t judge people on whether or not they have kids. It’s a bad metric. Anyone can live a meaningful life, it depends on approach. I respect people who are thoughtful, curious, kind, interesting, resilient. I don’t care if they have kids.[/quote]

We have plenty of friends without kids, and I don't think their lives are meaningless.  Some of them are really interesting people who do good work in their extended families, communities, or around the world.  They are scientists researching treatments for disease, or activists working for a better world.  They are loving aunts and uncles, and caregivers to elderly or disabled family members.  They are kind, hospitable people who make others feel welcome; they are active, caring volunteers.  How arrogant it would be to think their lives don't have real meaning, just because they didn't reproduce.  [/quote]

I agree with the both of you and glad to see little by little society is changing.[/quote]

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