I am sick of people in their 30s or 40s who don't have kids because they don't have time for that and want to enjoy life

I am sick of people not talking about running.

When I'm at the office I understand no one wants to hear about my mile repeats. But this place is my SAFE SPACE where I can rant all night about my running and your running.

I guess my question to the OP is how does having kids help your running? If it doesn't, why on earth would you have kids?!?!? A non-running reason doesn't make any sense.

Run run run wrote:

I am sick of people not talking about running.

When I'm at the office I understand no one wants to hear about my mile repeats. But this place is my SAFE SPACE where I can rant all night about my running and your running.

I guess my question to the OP is how does having kids help your running? If it doesn't, why on earth would you have kids?!?!? A non-running reason doesn't make any sense.

Lots of women get faster post childbirth because of the extra testosterone they generate.

Sarah Vaughn and Kara Goucher are just 2 examples but there are plenty of more amateur Mom runners on instagram that prove this also.

I wonder if this desire(?) not to have kids is an example of human evolution?

Evolution has - up to this point in time - programmed us to want to have kids, but maybe that programming effect is being diminished in the modern world.

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

Whatever helps you sleep at night...

Thought experiment:

There's a transporter that works by scanning your atoms and their relative positions, transmitting the information to a remote destination which, upon reception, reconstructs an exact copy.

After the scan is complete, you're told to step into a murder machine so that there's only one of you and the exact copy can continue on at the intended destination, complete with your memories and everything that makes you you.

Are you okay with this outcome? I'm not. I wish the other person the best of luck, but I don't identity myself as being that other person, and he by extension doesn't identity himself as being me. We're two different beings with separate identities. If he stubs his toe, I don't feel the pain.

The transporter is a murder machine.

So, an exact duplicate (up to the moment of the scan, after which we diverge -- but it doesn't matter if the scan destructively does its job such that there's no overlap) is not doing it for me. However, you say I'm suppose to think that another person --

my child -- who has none of my first-person experiences and only some of my genes (but a completely different expression), is somehow me continuing on? No thanks. I want my child to have an satisfying life, but like my duplicate, he's not me and I'm not him.

Wake up call: when you're dead, you're dead. That love you feel for your child? You won't be loving anything, nor anybody, when you're dead.

Its your evolutionary baggage, your culture, giving you this silly notion that you'll somehow life on through your child. You can live on in all sorts of ways -- most of which are more interesting ways to live on IMO. For instance, people make a similar argument about do something uniquely noteworthy and getting yourself immortalized in the history books.

Except, when you're dead, you're dead. You won't be around to appreciate any accolades nor feel any shame over any failures.

Life "struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing."

portsea57 wrote:

I wonder if this desire(?) not to have kids is an example of human evolution?

Evolution has - up to this point in time - programmed us to want to have kids, but maybe that programming effect is being diminished in the modern world.

Darwin’s theory states that every successful species has propagated because members of the species had the drive to reproduce. Evolution leads living things in the direction of more reproduction and more sex. The less sexual beings that don’t reproduce as effectively will die out over time, and the life that is better at passing on genes will become more prominent.

But do animals have a drive to reproduce? For a start, do animals automatically know that there is a direct relationship between the sex act and reproducing?

So, you must not be Christian, with that view?

I am sick of dumb and useless people having kids. These kids are obviously going to be just as dumb and useless as their parents. All these average and ordinary at best people think they're special, it's pretty disturbing. These idiots laugh at anyone who tries to be unique. If you have a problem with others who don't have kids, then you are a really insecure person. Mind your own business and try to not be so miserable and judgmental. Perhaps the stress your kids are giving you makes you jealous of people who don't have kids. Sure it's hard to deal with kids, but try being more positive and your life will become better.

Religious wrote:

So, you must not be Christian, with that view?

We got porn, who needs women and ungrateful, time and money sucking kids?

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

Alfred Nobel never had kids. Keanu Reeves. Jane Austen never married. Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo da Vinci, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Sir Isaac Newton, Nicola Tesla, James Buchanan (15th pres, in case you forgot). Louisa May Alcott, Condoleeza Rice, Hans Christian Anderson, George Eastman. Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry David "neckbeard" Thoreau, Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark Expedition). etc. being single does not mean you make no mark and there are marks that do not require procreation.

on the other hand, Galileo never married but had three children and Albert Einstein married but his wife was not the mother of his children, whom he never saw. where do these dudes fit on your morality scale?

comma explosion wrote:

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

I hope, you don't, have kids, with, same frequency, as your, insane, comma usage.

Thank you Mr. Comma Explosion.

Dad: please take the time you've been spending on letsrun and teach your poor children how to type a coherent sentence.

I already do this now with running , but not sure if I will change once I have an offspring. My feeling would be glory to be me, but even more glorious to be you!

This is amazing! Please, keep us update.

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

Yes, fear of mortality is a fantastic reason to have children.

Here’s why wrote:

Run run run wrote:

I am sick of people not talking about running.

When I'm at the office I understand no one wants to hear about my mile repeats. But this place is my SAFE SPACE where I can rant all night about my running and your running.

I guess my question to the OP is how does having kids help your running? If it doesn't, why on earth would you have kids?!?!? A non-running reason doesn't make any sense.

Lots of women get faster post childbirth because of the extra testosterone they generate.

Sarah Vaughn and Kara Goucher are just 2 examples but there are plenty of more amateur Mom runners on instagram that prove this also.

Instagram Mom runners. Priceless.

Someone tell Shalane that her elusive Boston Marathon victory is only a childbirth or two away!

I have a genetic disease. I don't want my children to inherit this they are happier swimming inside my testicles.

Dad of DAD'S wrote:

Wake up call,that race you won, or that chick your doing, won't matter when you pass. Your kids, are your true gift, to the world. It's like you keep living, after you pass on.

One of the worst things a person can do is have kids if they don't want kids. Having kids is hard work. There are enough f#cked up people in this world. We don't need to create more with lazy parents having kids.

Why do you care so much about how others choose to live their lives?