Do you like being around children?

suburbanwifey

Generali wrote: »

Do you like being around children?

No. They are nosy, demanding, messy

I guess some of us were born to be mothers, some of us not. I am happy that in society today there are more and more of us feeling comfortable about admitting the fact that we do not like children, do not want children and if possible would avoid them at all costs.

I just do not see their appeal, honestly!

PasturesNew

jamsandwhich wrote: »

Absolutely!

It is only around children you are able to play 'rabid dinosaurs', sing out of tune, crawl around on hands and knees under the dining table making such sounds as 'arrrghhurgh' without being sectioned as a complete loony:D

You only think you're getting away with it .... meanwhile, we have the paperwork ready.

Loughton_Monkey

Generali wrote: »

Do you like being around children?

No. No. No.

I am probably within the top 1% or 2% of those who absolutely and utterly detest children - or to be more correct, it is not so much the children as the parents of most of them. Much of my home has been wrecked by unavoidable visits from nieces, nephews, friends etc.

[When you have spent about 100 hours, after work, lovingly creating a masterpiece of an inlaid veneered chessboard, and then your wife has bought an extremely expensive pewter chess set to stand on it, and when you return to the room to see the parents smiling lovingly ("isn't that cute?) as two 4-year old twins are throwing/slamming the chess men at each other and onto the board to knock down other men, you cannot fail to get a bit miffed.]

Every year, we take a big trailer full of camping equipment and tour Europe. We do this deliberately from Mid May to Mid July, to return just when schools are starting their holidays. It is mind boggling the number of British children you see sloping off school - at parents behest obviously. And while trying to sip my very large gin & tonic as we watch the sun go down over the yardarm, there is nothing better to do than 'people watch'.

The most common themes are:

- The most high-pitched and constant squeeling/screeching that is never corrected by parents.

- An almost universal practice of sending their kids to the shower blocks to play (instead of the official kid's play area) where they tend to run around and around, slamming doors (often off their hinges), turning on taps. [I am now well skilled in timing - after much practice - to open a cubicle door from the inside, abruptly, at just the right moment so have at least one of the offenders falling on the floor and blubbing back home to where they belong].

- The tendancy to buy/bring big plastic pedal tractors, or similar, which make the most uncomfortable row when ridden over gravel. Parents never allow this in front of their own tent, but send them as far away as possible. Usually the 'quiet' corner occupied by us.

- Even more tedious, sometimes, is the constant drone of "Kevin! Don't do that or I'll send you inside....", repeated sometimes up to about 37 times (I've counted). Why do these ignorant parents not realise that they are simply teaching children that they never need to do what they are told?

This year, in Italy, a family with four young daughters left them at the camper van for 1 hour 20 minutes while the parents both went shopping. Keys to the van were left in charge of the eldest (about 9 or 10) and I was intrigued to see them using the large rear storage cabin in their noisy 'hide and seek' game and was avidly hoping they would lock themselves in it permanently, but to no avail. I suspect if something had 'happened' the parents would be the first to blame everyone but themselves.

I guess I was brought up differently. the words "Don't do that" or similar tended to mean that - or at least after the second go at most. If with parents in a shop, I was expected to stay with them, and not run up and down the aisles screeching and playing 'hide and seek'. If in a restaurant, I was expected to sit at the table reasonably quietly. Not be allowed to run off and noisily run up and down between other tables. Supermarkets were not invented when I was a young kid, but if they had been, my mother would never have sat me on the little seat, give me an unpaid for bag of cherries, and allow me to eat them and spit the pips out every few seconds onto the floor. But this sort of behaviour is common these days.

Believe it or not, I have been known to make observations of 'good' families where the children act within reasonable parameters, and such a family doesn't offend me at all. But they are so rare these days.

I strongly oppose any idea of following USA in allowing firearms. I oppose it on the grounds that if machine guns were legal, and if I had one, then I would surely use it.

Shakethedisease

So you don't like kids 'playing' then .. cos they tend to do that.

You never did any of the above as a child yourself ? Misbehaved occasionally ? Or had your parents shouting at you or your siblings to 'stop that' or 'put that down' ?

Find that very hard to believe.

amcluesent

>The most common themes are:<

So many truths there:T

But them kiddies will grow up in a world of strife, hunger, idleness with living standards tumbling back to those of the 1930s. Post peak oil, food and water life will grim.

AD9898_2

Generali wrote: »

Do you like being around children?

Depends on the age I guess, kids between 5-10 have the ability to be engaged quite easily, of you're willing to teach them. Of course the most important time for a child is between 0-5, if you (as a parent) do a good job at that age, the following years will see many more happy times than sad ones.

martinbuckley

Well-behaved children - yes.
Unruly yobs - no.

As for the old barren heffers & bulls that constantly whinge about children (good and bad), having been too selfish to reproduce - most definately no!

DKLS

Well behaved children dont hit my radar, but in general no I dont like being around children they bore me and they cannot recommend a good restaurant, film, holiday destination, book etc.

Also there seems to be a certain smell that children have, its hard to describe but if you venture in to any of those big chain pubs that serve huge dinners you will get it.

RenovationMan

As I said on a different thread...

Children are like farts, you cant stand anyone else's but you quite like your own.

amcluesent

The fact is though, if you're sitting in a theatre, diner, train carriage etc. as soon as you see a family coming along you heart sinks in expectation of the inevitable botheration to come.

The screeching, wheedling, foot drumming, crying, running amok, table thumping, seat hitting starts at once, all the while the idiotic parent(s) smile indulgently as everyone else's enjoyment is ruined.

AND of course, to say anything ensures a tirade of f-words from the parent(s). That said, I find it funny in shops etc. to exclaim in a stage whisper "What badly behaved children!"...;)