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

how... how is that not the SNL thing

I apologise sincerely to lex for suggesting that his dislike of being around kids is a pose. I still think it's worth overcoming but I put some disparate observations together and applied it to this situation. Also I was drunk, sorry.

aw, it's a lex pile-on. It makes me all nostalgic.

expressing annoyance w/ ppl for mourning their pets is one of the pettiest things i've ever heard

ugh i swear the pun there was not intentional

Conversation is a two way thing. Maybe it's you who is shit at talking with kids.

you get along with some little dudes better than others, and the same applies when interacting with adults; kind of silly to say "in my opinion" or "for me", but imo

yeah dude i didn't think you were being obnoxious, just a bit reductive maybe

as far as introspection goes yes i think we disagree, i don't buy myself as an island cogitating away so much as an open-ended organism in the middle of organism soup and the other ingredients keep basting me

99% of the time having children turns formerly interesting and fun adults into complete bores (the 1% mostly comprises naturally gifted raconteurs who can make any anecdote entertaining)

I wasn't sure if Lex dislikes children or parents more.

But I think this view (quoted above) is in itself 'boorish', considering the incredible diversity of things of parents and what they do. When you find 99% of parents complete bores, maybe it's time to question your own opinions.

(Sorry this sounds ridiculously patronising - but there it is)

the children make me more anxious and uncomfortable; i would rather exist in proximity to parents but ultimately i dislike them more. (obviously there are parents who aren't turned into entitled bores by parenthood and can still converse about matters outside their nuclear family, but they're a minority)

i fully admit i am shit at engaging with children - i mostly have no idea what to do or say and endeavour to ignore them - but i've no desire to get better at this, just to arrange my life to better avoid them. i do think reducing the scope of your interests and indeed love to your precious fucking nuclear family is a signifier of a worse person. it's fundamentally anti-solidarity.

I'm terrible at talking to children between, say, eight and fourteen. That's when I have nothing to say, and theoretically it should be easier.

i feel optimistic about engaging w/teenagers when the time comes

just say the word and we'll help you get out of the rubbish bin

Parents do inane crap as well, including watch tennis all day, ramble about their end of year spotify lists and post inane crap on twitter. Don't notice a lot of difference tbh.

doing inane crap is my forte

bob six:

- would that i could watch tennis all day, and tweet about it
- pretty sure i've posted under 20 words total about my EOY spotify playlist on the internet, would that i could hear under 20 words total about ppl's kids
- unfollow me then, fuckwit

personally i think kids are cool, great, even. feel like i would be a good dad if i wasn't such shit at being in a relationship. yes there are shitty kids but there are plenty of shitty adults.

for where i am, (non-human) animals (???) is a good substitute. we have two cats at my place and they are constantly a comfort. i used to get very depressed when i was a teenager and i really haven't felt that way since i started having a pet.

cats have been overwhelmingly beneficial to my sanity. it's nice to look at a face and realize nearly all of the bullshit bugging you literally does not exist in their reality. sometimes i envy them.

pretty sure i've posted under 20 words total about my EOY spotify playlist on the internet, would that i could hear under 20 words total about ppl's kids

word count: 28

xp
don't muddy the waters by bringing those disease ridden - at liberty to shit in your garden - bird killers to this thread for goodness sake :p

love cats

detest them

don't mind other people's but am v unhappy with their shitting and trampoline net-destroying antics

cats or children?

don't find kid's shit anything like as repellent as pet shit, which is on a higher plain of noxiousness than almost anything

I have one of them high pressure water pistols filled with slimy dishwater in my kitchen, for when any cats venture anywhere near my bird feeding station. The ones I manage to hit never seem to return. I love dogs + kids - even the annoying type ones. But as for cats - I'd be happy for some kind of final solution tbh.

"but i've no desire to get better at this, just to arrange my life to better avoid them"

now i'm just imagining all these children leaping out from behind corners on the street at the lex. who are all these children? just tell them to buzz off.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-714hCsrkzIA/VDSmj-nBuaI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/8YiinQCnlwU/s1600/bike.jpg

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/8/86/The_Children_(Village_of_the_Damed).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111110184851

i do think reducing the scope of your interests and indeed love to your precious fucking nuclear family is a signifier of a worse person. it's fundamentally anti-solidarity.

― lex pretend, Saturday, December 17, 2016 1:02 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lex, genuine question for you - have you ever had another person become wholly or almost exclusively dependent on you for their well-being and existence? A sick friend, parent, family member, or partner? there are many reasons people might have to withdraw or shift their focus internally to people or events that demand significant time and energy. it seems petty and lacking of empathy to call them worse people. the care-taking of a dependent is an enormous demand, if one has never had to do it, it might be difficult to understand.

seems like sacrificing much of your life for the well-being of someone else is pretty pro-solidarity

so many genuine questions itt

you guys are assuming lex's declaration of most parents as boring is some kind of moral judgement when it seems pretty clear it's an aesthetic one, or a "lifestyle choice"
I think it could potentially be some projection at work i.e. I'M NOT BORING nobody said you were

OTOH
reducing the scope of your interests and indeed love to your precious fucking nuclear family
is a reasonable starting point for a moral judgement because this is how some people do become awful

you know I think that would've been a pretty fair and accurate assessment until lex said outright that parents who focus too much on their kids are literally worse people and "anti-solidarity"

xp

http://68.media.tumblr.com/a91c37bbfa184e6626266604439e2328/tumblr_nxt9nb8Gdi1r65o3qo1_1280.jpg

It's true i feel v little solidarity w boorish narcissists

What a lovely thread full of dog haters, cat haters, kid haters and parent haters. Merry Christmas, everyone!

good mourning!

Good Mourning!

http://images.scribblelive.com/2013/1/16/2afb8358-d4ba-43e9-8780-5dcfda800c76.jpg

I don't even think it's a reasonable starting point. There are so many different types of parents and families (e.g. doctors, surgeons, social workers, knackered charity workers), I'm not sure you can reduce them to this broad "precious fucking nuclear family" generalisation.

And not being a parent doesn't mean you're necessarily manning the barricades pushing for positive societal change.

i was 90% selfish before i had kids. now i'm 70% selfish.

why would anyone bother hanging out with boring parents and their annoying kids anyway? i HAVE to talk to normal/boring parents sometimes. it comes with the territory. but i never came anywhere near them when i was blissfully kidless.

awkward small talk with normal people coming to pick up their kid after a birthday party/play date one of the inevitable hazards of child-rearing. sometimes there's just no avoiding it.

I avoid other parents like the plague. I was invited to some parents meeting at the school and my partner asked me if I was going. I said in jest that I was getting my pubes permed on that particular day and she actually wrote that in the school dairy - as in I wouldn't be attending because I am getting my pubic hair permed. I couldn't believe she did it ffs. There wasn't a reply from the teachers funnily enough.

if the only people that matter to you are "you and yours" - which is I read when I read "reducing the scope of interests and love to your nuclear family" - then you're probably an asshole

There are so many different types of parents and families (e.g. doctors, surgeons, social workers, knackered charity workers), I'm not sure you can reduce them to this broad "precious fucking nuclear family" generalisation.

"this very specific statement becomes far, far too broad and overly general when I choose to interpret selectively as such"

I'm not sure of the value of a close scriptural/textual analysis of Lex's remarks, but he was shooting far and wide as far as I can see:

99% of the time having children turns formerly interesting and fun adults into complete bores (the 1% mostly comprises naturally gifted raconteurs who can make any anecdote entertaining)

being boring is good imo

i have no kids and still manage to be quite boring and incredibly selfish fwiw

so which remark are you interested in arguing about? the moral one or the one where we're all boring?

i'm used to the way you guys are boring. i guess it must be comforting.

i mean how many years have people gotten up in arms over some good clean lex fun? it's like a cozy boring cup of tea by now.