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I'm going to take a general sentiment in a previous thread somewhat further.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that having kids is the biggest and most successful disinformation campaign society has pulled on itself in all of history. Having kids is one of the worst things you can do to your short term happiness, up there with getting addicted to heroin or getting in a motorcycle accident. Whatever things you might have enjoyed in life before them is completely gone, for the rest of your life. Every waking moment of your life outside of work will be completely occupied by taking care of monstrous creatures that make every single bodily function besides breathing as difficult as humanly possible. Eating, sleeping, farting, shitting, drinking, etc. will each be a torturous ordeal that you will have to deal with multiple times per day. It's backbreaking, thankless, and absolutely positively unfulfilling. After having kids you will finally understand the men who work 18 hour days every day despite having kids. They're actually doing it because of the kids. Because work obligations are the only excuse they can give themselves to let them spend less time dealing with kids and instead doing something relaxing like writing TPS reports or updating excel spreadsheets. Getting into the office and getting a stack of work from your boss is sweet relief compared to the torture of taking care of the kids.
I'm pretty sure the lie around it has persisted for so long because of the corresponding hard social stigma against saying you absolutely fucking hate taking care of the kids. Anyone who even hints at that idea is going to get completely crucified in the comments section. It's like the Havel's greengrocer, where if he doesn't put up the sign with the approved message, he's going to get hauled off to the gulag. Except for parents the punishment will be worse.
Anyways I find it likely that the cratering of birthrates across the entire world is a mass viral sensation where the lie is breaking down. Likely fuelled by social media as well as other factors, people are finally realizing en masse (though not openly admitting it yet) that it seriously just sucks. Even the welfare queens and third world brown hordes realize that this is true for them too. And they're understandably picking the hedonism option.
And no I don't hate or dislike kids. Kids are great, as long as they're someone else's, and their parents are around to jump in and take care of it as soon as something goes wrong.
I pretty much agree, but that’s why every culture needs a level of default pronatal propaganda. You need even more pronatal propaganda today than in the 19th century, which already had a ton, because of screens and extracurriculars, as parents have more opportunity for entertainment and kids require more time doing extra-curriculars. Propaganda just means selectively drawing your attention to the pleasant aspects of some activity versus another. To joyfully endure dealing with the bad aspects of having kids, you need to be reminded of the good aspects all the time. Moments of innocent joy when they do something new, witnessing human nature, being able to give your kid talents and skills like he’s a brand new account on an RPG, feeling proud that you’ve completed your duty, believing you are making the world a better place. Intrinsic joys + socially-mediated joys. Now it’s more pleasant in total, so you will do it.
Another thing is that parents need to know how punishment works. As long as the behavior is followed immediately by something unpleasant, you never need to yell or get stressed or anything, but the punishment needs to be more unpleasant than the misdeed is pleasant, which parents get wrong. If he throws something at his brother, that’s really fun, so he will keep doing that even after you yell and give a 10min time out, because if’s worth it. And instead of saying “because you have to” or “because I told you so”, you need to invent frightening stories about monsters and curses and other bad consequences, as every culture in history did. This is essential so that your kid doesn’t see you as a tyrant, instead he sees you as a guide and rescuer in a life filled with monsters.
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