Children ranked behind seven of nine* criteria for a happy marriage, behind fidelity, healthy sex, sharing chores (!), having enough money, having a good home, shared religious beliefs, and shared interests, and ahead of only an agreement on politics.Reminds me of the bemused reaction I had when I met someone who thought that childless married couples were selfish. Selfish. I could not imagine the misery of someone who bore and raised children because they had to. What a horrible existence.
[snip]
But those trends are all going in the right direction, and they’ll continue to. For now, it’s important to recognize that whatever the religious right is screaming today — and they’re screaming, all right — the society is doing what it’s been doing for decades: moving slowly and inexorably leftward, toward a place where people are more tolerant of differences, where women have more rights than they used to, and where dividing the work equally is more important to a relationship than whether or not you add a kid.
Thank god we're more evolved than that. Right? Right?!
5 comments:
Selfish, huh? And if you get married too late to have children safely, what about that? Or if one of you can't have kids or medical reasons? I know lots of couples in both of those situations.
Me, too. What if the two of you did not want children? How could you be selfish in recognizing you were going to be a bad parent?
There are those who still think this way. In the days of overpopulation, pollution, overcrowding, traffic jams, lack of water, lack of housing.... you are selfish if you don't produce kids.
Bizarre.
Seven of nine criteria? What's Jeri Ryan got to do with this? :)
Not having kids was a conscious choice on my part, for a lot of reasons. A friend of mine just turned fifty; he and his wife of about forty just had their first child under a year ago. That's going to make for a looooong senescence if you ask me.
But seriously... is there really a shortage of people having kids, intentionally or otherwise? Why does anyone outside my immediate circle care if I have kids or not? And what business is it of theirs?
Steve, Jeff Fecke got the rimshot on that, getting "Seven of Nine Marriage Sex" all together.
If you aren't familiar with the background, Jeri Ryan's ex-husband Jack Ryan was a candidate for Senate who withdrew over some accusations involving his failed marriage. By this chance it was therefore a shoo-in for Barack Obama to become a US Senator.
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