Fellow Child-free folk - Let's Chat: Do you feel it is risky being "out" these days?

It's a perfectly cromulent word, guys.

So you want more joyful accounts of parenting?

I didn't name the article!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

It's a perfectly cromulent word, guys.

Cromulent? This is all I can think of

IMAGE(http://www.conanmovieblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Conan_The-King.jpg)

I could tell you about how a lot of things before I became a parent and after were pretty much the same or sort of better, but it's really not the sort of thing one writes about or hears about.

"I am a father now. I feel kind of ambivalent but expectant, and I need to do this for the future of my family line and the survival of my clan. Also, need some insurance against no safety-net poverty in old age."

It's a little too prosaic to be all that interesting to read or write.

"Davy's crying his head off.

Alright. Put him in the curtained room until he calms down and carry on with fixing dinner and laundry. Pretty much just like we did on laundry day before."

It's neither a sublime moment of triumph nor a depressing shock of surreal humanity. It's largely just business as usual, with the addition of a new trainee every now and then. Who wants to read about that?

JC wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

It's a perfectly cromulent word, guys.

Cromulent? This is all I can think of

IMAGE(http://www.conanmovieblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Conan_The-King.jpg)

IMAGE(http://showbizgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-17-at-11.57.23.png)

DSGamer wrote:

Because it's an opportunity to talk about themselves? Parents like to talk about their kid first and their experience parenting second. Good and bad. If they're not tut-tutting you for not having kids and experiencing the joy they are they're telling other people how terrible being a parent is.

Did you read the article?

SixteenBlue wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Because it's an opportunity to talk about themselves? Parents like to talk about their kid first and their experience parenting second. Good and bad. If they're not tut-tutting you for not having kids and experiencing the joy they are they're telling other people how terrible being a parent is.

Did you read the article?

Yes. I wasn't responding to the article, though. I responding to the question posted in the title of the article.

Come on Stengah Conan is ALWAYS applicable!

JC wrote:

Come on Stengah Conan is ALWAYS applicable! :)

The spirit of Conan does embiggen the smallest man, but Miss Hoover is the one who first said "cromulent."

Crom laughs at your four winds. He laughs from his mountain.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Crom laughs at your four winds. He laughs from his mountain.

I'd visit Crom's mountain if it weren't for this lousy Smarch weather.

DSGamer wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Because it's an opportunity to talk about themselves? Parents like to talk about their kid first and their experience parenting second. Good and bad. If they're not tut-tutting you for not having kids and experiencing the joy they are they're telling other people how terrible being a parent is.

Did you read the article?

Yes. I wasn't responding to the article, though. I responding to the question posted in the title of the article.

I see it as just another thing that kind of puts a difference between myself and child-rearing people. I don't dissuade them from posting or whatever, but I really don't pay much attention to the complaints sent out into the electronic ether either, and just try to make small talk when they bring it up unless it becomes of a question of, so when are YOU going to sign up for all this misery? and they give me flak when I say, never if I can help it.

Stengah wrote:
JC wrote:

Come on Stengah Conan is ALWAYS applicable! :)

The spirit of Conan does embiggen the smallest man, but Miss Hoover is the one who first said "cromulent."

ahh I see. I stopped watching the Simpson's quite some time ago.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/z9NqqR9.jpg)

That's something I found on the Internet, right? Not yours, a friend's, etc? I would love to send that to my wife.

NSMike wrote:

It's from reddit.

Sweet. Thanks.

...oh my god, I never considered that going in for my vasectomy was a good time for jokes! I will have to post my own picture later!

It's from reddit.

It should be fairly obvious that it's not mine.

Demosthenes wrote:

...oh my god, I never considered that going in for my vasectomy was a good time for jokes! I will have to post my own picture later! :D

IMAGE(http://1.media.todaysbigthing.cvcdn.com/60/34/ee9073fc50c7b0f472ded37f92b23807.gif)

IMAGE(http://a.asset.soup.io/asset/4912/3770_64a6.jpeg)

You know what's sweeter than the sound of a child's laughter? One's own smug self-assurance that other people's life choices are stupid and wrong.

Eh, I thought it was funny.

Jonman wrote:

You know what's sweeter than the sound of a child's laughter? One's own smug self-assurance that other people's life choices are stupid and wrong.

Wait? Is this thread going to become that again? I agree with Maq's post. A child's laughter doesn't make me happy. It puts my hair on end and it reminds me of how smug and terrible people were to my wife and I when we decided *not* to have kids. It reminds me that we're always going to be the social pariahs. It reminds me that even on GWJ you can't talk about your choice without someone coming along to tell you you're a jerk for daring to think that way.

Part of me is all like...
IMAGE(http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/powerrangers.gif)

Part of me is all like...
IMAGE(http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/dude.gif)

DSGamer wrote:
Jonman wrote:

You know what's sweeter than the sound of a child's laughter? One's own smug self-assurance that other people's life choices are stupid and wrong.

Wait? Is this thread going to become that again? I agree with Maq's post. A child's laughter doesn't make me happy. It puts my hair on end and it reminds me of how smug and terrible people were to my wife and I when we decided *not* to have kids. It reminds me that we're always going to be the social pariahs. It reminds me that even on GWJ you can't talk about your choice without someone coming along to tell you you're a jerk for daring to think that way.

Dude. Take your cranky pants off and put them back in the drawer.

You'll note that what I wrote can equally be applied in either direction. Because I was poking fun at the picture for doing [i]the exact same thing that led to the creation of this thread in the first place [/i] -being, as you put it, "smug and terrible" to people who made a different choice to you.

I'm on your side here. But that don't mean I'm not going to call out the exact same bullsh*t that led you here when it flows in the other direction.

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/ioDhRvuzt5klG.gif)

But... that image doesn't say you're wrong for having kids. In the thread for people who don't want kids. It says that "for me" I love my choice. That Maq loves that choice. Not sure how that's BS. Not sure how my response was cranky.

Tanglebones wrote:

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/ioDhRvuzt5klG.gif)

As an aside, Maq's wife and son might be surprised to hear that he's child-free.