Discussion For antinatalists, do your views change you relationships with those with children?

[Forever Sleep]

I haven't actually interacted or been around former good friends that now have children, for years. I don't hold personal bad feelings towards individual parents but then, I wonder if my growing anti-natilism vibe would start to seep into conversations etc. Do you find this at all?

I suppose just generally, I try to avoid people because I'm sure both my ideation, hatred of life and anti-natilism would start to surface. Not that it would make any difference to their life or choices but, I expect it wouldn't be too pleasant. Plus, it becomes too much of a red flag.

I forget sometimes how abnormal it is. I briefly worked somewhere where the people were absolutely lovely. Most were parents or, at least had partners. I suddenly remembered it was kind of weird to not want either. I got into a weirder place where I felt I had to justify it. I couldn't feasibly say: 'I f*cking hate life and I think it's unreasonable to bring a child here.' So, I just covered with some other lame excuse. It felt weird though, to feel the need to defend the decision.

What do you do though? If you do hold strong anti-natalist views. Do you cover them, just avoid people, or are you honest? Even if it risks distancing friendships?

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

I'm lucky to not have any friends or be in the age range where people start asking about children (although I think that's fallen out of fashion societally anyway). But I do notice that I've developed a bit of resentment towards parents of young children who I see out in public; my instinctive response whenever I see a child now is "That poor child" or "You shouldn't be having kids." I don't actually blame anyone for choosing to have kids, of course, and I recognize that this resentment is irrational, so I would never voice these sentiments. Even if I did, I assume it would quickly cause discomfort and confusion. One of those topics that people are very touchy about.