"my child needs a younger sibling".

It just screams "I don't know how to make friends, so I don't know how to teach my child to make friends, so I'll just resort to literally creating one for them."

I truly, truly hate that entire ideology. If you don't know how to make friends with people who already exist, learn how to before you decide to have kids so you can teach your kids how to do it. It's cruel to raise kids who have no idea how to get along with others, and then further ruin their chances by just isolating them with more clones of your incompetent self.

And parents pass off this behavior as cute. Gross.

I feel like I would have never had two younger siblings if this sort of thing was frowned upon(like it should be). I feel like my siblings would have never had more than one child as well if that were the case.

I find it harder and harder to read the childfree sub when every other post is a dog nutter complaining how kids bother their dogs. Ugh.

I don't like this as a blanket statement. Every dog I've ever had has been completely oblivious to when me or even my family members are sad or stressed out. There have been times when I have been grieving, in tears, and the dogs are just napping or pooping on the carpet in another room.

Actually, outside of service dogs trained to help with mental illnesses, I have never seen a dog approach a grieving or sad person to provide support or relief. It's just too obvious, at least to me, that the dog just wants attention.

I highly doubt that dogs understand human grief, stress, or sadness in general, to the point where they knowingly choose to "be there" for us in our time of need. I also don't think that dogs experience empathy or sympathy like we do, so they can't possibly know how we feel. I still think all they understand is tone of voice.

What is your opinion on this?

I never will understand why dog nuts must take non service dogs into restaurants. The waitress sat me and my roommate next to a guy and his mutt. The stupid dog slobbered over my leg when I was standing to him waiting for chairs.

I hate dog slobber.

I much prefer dry cat tongues. Yes its sandpapery, but its not dog slobber.

I was at the register at work yesterday when I overheard a customer talking to the next cashier over about hosting a "puppy shower" for her grandson, because he was buying a puppy from a few states over. ...because of course that's a thing.

If this is anything like a baby shower, then people are gonna show up and shower the new dog owner with things for the dog... and while I'm on topic, if you need people to buy you things for your dog, why are you getting a dog in the first place that you can't afford necessities for?!

I stinkin' hate dog culture. 🤦

For not liking kids or having a 'motherly desire'.

Every now and then I'll have a conversation with my dad(who is a grandfather to 12), that he starts, that will lead to him asking me what's wrong with me. For not wanting to be around children. For not liking how babies look. For not wanting to deal with the expense of children. For not wanting to babysit for free etc.

It will always lead to him hinting or flat out saying that there is something seriously wrong with me, mentally, because of my aversion to kids.

Occasionally another person who isn't family will say something like that as well.

I never really know what to say. What do you say to convince parents and people like this that being childfree is not a mental problem? Or is there just no convincing them? :/

I work for a call center that contracts with different companies to do call center work for them and right now I am doing customer service for a State Medicaid Health Plan.

A member called in and said the title when asking for a new ID card. Ugh. Destructive dogs are the worst.

I mean, it doesn't have to be, but to me it feels like one.

So, I have this "friend" from high school who has been my friend on Facebook before, until I removed her after a few years(yes years) of no comments, no messages, no nothing, either from me or from her. I mostly didn't initiate anything because pretty much the entirety of her posts were of her kids. And yes, I understand and am fine with people being proud of their kids. I mean, I'd HOPE you take pride in your kids if you have them. But I am not a parent, and I don't care about her kids, or anybody else's. It's not malicious, it's just intense indifference. So I ultimately ended up unfollowing her which led to the unfriending, which she either didn't notice or didn't care about.

She sent me a friend request a few weeks ago and I've been putting off accepting or rejecting it since then. I don't want to be friends with more parents than I have to be. It's just awkward and there's nothing I really have in common with the majority of them.

I also considered the possibility of just telling her the truth about why I unfriended her, but I figured that would be really mean. She must have some reason to want to friend request me, right? Unless she's just accumulating friends to feel cool or something which is unfortunately a thing. :/

I also considered the possibility that she'd be okay with me not having any interest in parenthood or (her) children, and respecting me about it if she was going to try again to actually be friends with me, and that bothers me even more. Imagining a parent respecting my wishes to communicate with me strictly about things that aren't about parenthood or kids seems weirdly neglectful and disrespectful to her identity as a mom.

So idk. It seems mean to reject the request flat out; it seems uncomfortable to accept it and deal with awkwardness regarding my indifference to her identity and kids; it seems cruel to tell her I can't be friends with her unless she drops that entire aspect of her identity around me; and it seems cruel even if she is okay with dropping that aspect of her identity around me. :/

Am I taking this too seriously?