For those people who have decided not to have kids now, why did you not have a problem having kids in a country where black people are murdered by police? Surely you did not think Hillary Clinton was the single-person answer to what has been happening here.
My H has a few times made statements that he's glad we're not having kids because of the state of the world, to which I just roll my eyes. No, we're not having kids because we don't want kids. End of story. Stop talking.
ETA: neither of us are particularly more than average in intelligence so the world doesn't need our babies. Plus, once at a Dave & Buster's we went into one of those "See what your baby will look like!" photo machines and the baby picture that came out was really ugly. It's one thing to bring average intelligence babies into this world, but the world definitely doesn't need more ugly babies.
I was always on the fence about having kids because I'm pretty pessimistic about our ability to avoid or even mitigate the consequences of climate change (all the natural disasters, including food and water shortages, leading to horrible civil unrest, etc.), but DH talked me into it with his optimism about the adaptability of the human species and blah, blah, blah. So now here I am with 2 young kids and a president who doesn't believe in climate change at a point in time where it seems we may have reached the critical point for action. I am terrified and feel like it was incredibly selfish of me to have had children. They have enriched my life tremendously, but what will their future hold?
My son is a white male, so he personally probably won't be in much danger. But I'm going to do my best to teach him about his privilege, and teach him that it's his job to stand up for those who don't have his privilege.
Agreed.
Related to this: IDK how many people have seen Idiocracy but the scene in the beginning where the smart liberals are being overrun by idiots because of their propensity for popping out babies feels more real than ever. So maybe I'm not "hopeful" per se, but I might be a little more resolved to have more kids (if possible) to raise a generation of caring individuals who want to make the world a better place for everyone.
Whenever people mention Idiocracy, I think that a Camacho presidency would be a delight compared to the upcoming one.
OP, what you need to evaluate is your level of anxiety and your ability to back out of it. I often have thoughts of doom/disaster/what if x, y, z, but thanks to meds and a fabulous therapist, 99 times out of 100 I can talk myself down. If you feel like you're having a hard time doing so, if your worries are interferring with life, or literally keeping you awake at night, I urge you to at least talk to a doctor. I waited until my 1st child was 18 months old, and I feel like she and I both missed out on so much because my anxiety level was so high.
It's so hard being a new mama, even when it doesn't feel like we're approaching end times.
Pixy posted the other day about the US being like Syria in 25 years, and I can't stop thinking about it. I look at dd, and I'm terrified that I won't be able to protect her.
Oh. Perhaps I should have checked into the thread earlier. If the world ends, so be it. I'll have (hopefully) raised a child in a loving home up until that point. There are so many different paths this could take. While scientists are fairly certain how THIS path is going to end, that doesn't mean it's not going to branch and take another ending that we can't see yet. Have you read much sci-fi? There's a lot of talk about parallel universes and ripple effects of time that could apply here.
That's a long winded way of saying, you just gotta live your life the best you can. Change what you can, when you can, and don't worry too much about the world ending.
As for anyone who doesn't want to have children now, you can always give your babies to me. I will take ALL THE BABIES!
Post by thecatinthehat on Nov 23, 2016 0:27:45 GMT -5
My level of anxiety is definitely not healthy for someone pregnant, by this I mean for the health of my unborn baby while in my womb swimming in anxiety induced whatever. I want to step away so bad but I feel like this that is wrong too. I should do something to call things out on FB when I see it or to share articles that I think are important for people to read and have not been shared on my feed. The first thing I do in the morning is open my phone and check FB and my vocal friends are the first things I see. I honestly do not know what is the right thing to do or what a happy medium looks like for me.
I'm becoming a teacher and raising a great kid. I'm doing what I can. And things change. I'm no more or less worried about the state of the world than I was 5 years ago.
My youngest has a physical disability that is pretty obvious and directly parallels the reporter Trump mocked.
So, I wouldn't say I'm worried, but my heart aches for him more than it already did. He's tiny yet but I really hate the thought of him growing up under a president who has basically issued a blank check on bullying people exactly like him.