Taking sides: Children vs. (non-human) animals

i was at a friend's house on saturday night and there were lots of dogs. one of them, an 11 year old pitbull called Findlay who've only met two or three times, came over for a pet from me and leaned against me for a hug. A little chihuahua sat on my lap for about half an hour. my idea of a good time

If it weren't for children, there wouldn't be any grownups.

Feeble imo.

lex seems p miserable - no laffs, no kids, only horrible club music to listen to, reliant on others for food

jim that sounds like a wonderful party :))))

I dont understand why people feel the need to disparage children. To me this feels like a kind of prejudice. Kids are mistreated all around the world and they are not equipped to advocate for themselves. What kind of monster would think it's important to express their "dislike" of a group like that?

This has nothing to do with whether people should want to have children. It would probably be better for the world to adopt some version of an antinatalist position tbh. All I'm saying is that children are people.

lex seems p miserable - no laffs, no kids, only horrible club music to listen to, reliant on others for food

you sound like my republican uncle

Sounds like the voiceover to an advert for some (weird) charity.

This has nothing to do with whether people should want to have children.

otm.

but actively hating kids is def misanthropic

ty treesh

antidog ppl itt maybe even worse tho

sometimes i look at the behaviour of children, their neediness, their self-centred greed, and it's like they are concentrated embodiments of all the worst traits of humanity. then on the other hand sometimes they seem like concentrated embodiments of our best traits, their curiosity, their imaginations, their ability to show love without a second thought.

this is very OTM

their ability to show love without a second thought.

Positively doglike.

is taking sides like which group do you prefer, or taking sides like who would win in a fight? either way i guess my answer is "most animals"

Evil guide dog excepted.

Now that Treeship has said all that needed to be said, this thread can get down to nattering.

Kids are mistreated all around the world and they are not equipped to advocate for themselves. What kind of monster would think it's important to express their "dislike" of a group like that?

otm, kids are the most vulnerable people in the world, they are utterly dependent on adults to take care of them and people exploit their vulnerability on a daily basis. "oh but they are loud and they irritate me" v cool opinion lex!

but i do like children a lot, no hatred there. babies are weird little amazing aliens. watching toddlers learn how to communicate and connect things together is living edutainment. 4-7 year olds can be the most fun people to engage with, when they're completely freaking out about who broke a toy or whatever. and even terrible adolescents are kind of amazing for the emotional split they go through, the realization that they're going to die and that their mom or dad is going to die, the first grappling with the idea that there might not be a god or that most people just worship the god or gods that they were assigned according to their place of birth, but also on the flip side their minds and experiences are rapidly expanding and they're kind of scoping out the boundaries of their lives, getting a taste of what their personal limits might be and how far they might able to go. it's all good.

on the other hand, you haven't LIVED if you haven't wrestled with a labrador retriever in the snow

obv that should be when they're NOTcompletely freaking out about who broke a toy or whatever

if someone out there really enjoys engaging with 4-7 year olds when they're freaking about who broke the toy, then that person is The Chosen One

tbh that wasn't very obvious

maybe lex is just angling for a DHS Administration of Children and Families post in the Trump admin

sometimes i look at the behaviour of children, their neediness, their self-centred greed, and it's like they are concentrated embodiments of all the worst traits of humanity. then on the other hand sometimes they seem like concentrated embodiments of our best traits, their curiosity, their imaginations, their ability to show love without a second thought.

wow, it's almost like they are ... people

the answer is : your own kids > your own pets > other people's pets > other people's kids

dogs are much easier, kids are more rewarding

it's like take sides - eating ice cream or training for a marathon. i find eating ice cream much more enjoyable than training for a marathon but i am not proud of the ice cream after it has been eaten u kno

may I suggest a different brand of ice cream, or perhaps making your own

wow, it's almost like they are ... people

or like all people are children, i guess.

for goodness sake it is not "monstrous" to be uninterested in or annoyed by children, or simply to prefer not to have them around ever

and i see way more everyday misanthropy directed at perfectly harmless subsets of adults. it's fine to be annoyed and vent! it doesn't make anyone a weirdo. though this kind of rabid proscribed positivity around children does feel quite alienating. i don't tell people who dislike dogs that they're monsters.

tbf lex is basically a giant baby

xp

come now, folks, we must remember that lex is the real victim here

Nobody is the victim

nah I'm cool

hating children is the ultimate stereotypical misanthropy in an adult. prob could name 50 books or movies with it as a theme in about two minutes.

101 Dalmatians has both!

yeah like dr alan grant but he learns to get on with children after his experience with animals that have escaped captivity and then at the end he is in a helicopter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnTsVTNrvC0

- Computer.m4v

I don't get hating kids, for reasons eloquently put by Treesh and LG. Hate the parents, not the kids imho, if you must.

Dogs on the other hand...

Children are people and thus fine, being born is a disaster and I refuse to have any role in making a person be born, I don't like dogs, I like cats, animals are ridiculous and fascinating in their diversity and there's only one kind of human.

getting some serious xtian vibes from this thread

https://guideimg.alibaba.com/images/shop/2016/07/23/4/nursery-qutoes-my-children-are-my-greatest-blessings-family-love-quote-baby-nursery-decor-home-decor-kids-room-bedroom-h_21865604.jpeg

there are lots of very fucked up things about 'childhood' and the way a lot of people treat & control children, & I can understand feeling anger at that, esp the ego on some parents & the whole authoritarian worldview that kids become tokens of for some people. kids bring out really dark power impulses in a lot of people

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/11/28/23/2EE3BFFD00000578-0-image-a-9_1448753915582.jpg

there's so many things wrong with lex i doubt his anti-kids stance would even crack the top 20 if anything it just confirms for me how excellent kids are

wow, it's almost like they are ... people

― na

ding ding ding

preemptive clusterfuck summary: fuckin' ilx

it doesn't make anyone a weirdo.

it is fundamentally weird to me.... " i really don't like the youngest members of my species"

If I had to choose between spending one hour in a room with 50 toddlers or 50 adult Trump voters I'd take the toddlers in a New York minute.

cool

lol

it is fundamentally weird to me.... " i really don't like the youngest members of my species"

agreed - it's just a bizarre affectation from ppl with very low emotional maturity - otm above whoever said that hating children is the classical descriptor of fictional villains. it's bc it's so absurd.

bonus points if they tilt their chin up and sniff while saying haughtily, "well i was /never/ a child."

What about people who don't actively hate kids but would rather not have anything to do with them