Are Asexuals More Likely to Avoid Children?

[Liadain]

I like kids as long as they're not my responsibility, and although I've yo-yoed between wanting and not wanting to have my own, I think I've settled on the latter. I do love children, though in limited doses, and wouldn't be against fostering. If I ever did have kids of my own it would probably be through adoption, since the thought of contributing to even more population growth would make me feel like a selfish, stupid jerk.

[pejoratist]

LOL Cate! There is a recurring skit on Trigger Happy TV in which a guy with a GIGANTIC cell phone (I'm talking 3 feet long) goes around in public and when it rings loudly he has an absolutely LOUD conversation. It's hilarious.

Adolescent egocentrism is extremely common. "Imaginary audience" is just what you said, Cate, when an adolescent views themselves as actors and everyone else as the audience. Related is the "personal fable", in which the adolescent believes they are the "star" of a story and therefore have extraordinary abilities/privileges. (Might explain why teenagers have unprotected sex or drive like morons. Course..some people always drive like morons..)

AGEISM. Yes, yes, adolescents are frequently illogical and live in a mentally skewed world, but that's just because they are becomming adult human beings, who are equally bonkers.

As George Carlin once said, Kids are like any other group of people; a few winners, a whole bunch of losers. Age notwithstanding, people are always self-centered and flawed in a variety of ways. That is why I don't want children. Not because children are terrible, but because people are.

[Liadain]

Amen, pejoratist.

[gypsylady]

That is why I don't want children. Not because children are terrible, but because people are.

So well put, pejoratist. So well put...

[Miss_Moneypenny]

I like kids when you can give them back. I certainly don't want any of my own.

I teach music as a hobby to kids aged 8+, but that's probably only because practically all the marching bands in this country are for kids. If they were for adults then I guess my hobby would be teaching the same thing to adults.

I don't mind teenagers and older kids but toddlers and babies - no thanks.

[starsong]

I have no particular desire to have children, but I generally get along well with other people's - often better than with adults.

[outspoken1761]

I've never had any desire to have children. I respect people who commit themselves to raising children, but I'm just not hard-wired that way. I've never been able to understand or relate to the thought that I have to pass on my legacy/genes/name to the next generation...but that's just me.

[*a*rteest]

I think pregnancy is just inefficient and gross. I loathe babies. You see one baby, you see them all. They're just ALL gross.

Teenagers and pre-teens i can sort of handle. A lot of them are actually cool.

However I have no need to replicate my own DNA. Children in total are too loud, too much trouble and too much work. I am better off without them. I hate people too much to go around making more.

I like having my own money, my own time and my own space, and NO WAY will I ever give that up for a kid.

I've been surgically sterilized for three years and it was the BEST thing I ever did for myself!!!!!

[Rabger]

I think pregnancy is just inefficient and gross. I loathe babies. You see one baby, you see them all. They're just ALL gross.

Teenagers and pre-teens i can sort of handle. A lot of them are actually cool.

However I have no need to replicate my own DNA. Children in total are too loud, too much trouble and too much work. I am better off without them. I hate people too much to go around making more.

I like having my own money, my own time and my own space, and NO WAY will I ever give that up for a kid.

I completely agree with you. Even if my gf does have a daughter... It's not my fault! And while I know that given the situation, I have to take some responsibility even though I DONT WANT TO, I draw a line. Not MY kid, so if I want to hand her back off to mommy, I should be able to without getting shit for it.

I love the earth too much to help reproduce more spawn to destroy her.

[Heimdall]

Babies are ugly and I never quite understood why parent and even family, and women stare et them and stay absorbed like as if they were the uber utmost wonder of the universe.

Apart from that I've already babysitted some childs, and I have not much problems with them. That maybe because I'm still a child myself (in my head), and also because childs are often more honest and direct than adults, which make them more easy to comprehend and live by, speaking for myself of course.

[DarkcatXXC]

Much to my mother's dismay, I have no desire to have children, now or in the future. She keeps saying that the "right" person will come along and change my mind. Ironically, she was about my age when she had me. I feel kind of bad about this, because she wants grandchildren in the worst way. Well, I guess there's always my brother. Besides the fact that the very act required to conceive a child holds no attraction for me, the idea of being pregnant makes me uneasy. Even if sex weren't necessary, and I didn't have to carry the child myself, I still wouldn't want children. As I like to say, I have enough to handle just being responsible for me, let alone another human being that would depend on me completely.

[kencollapse]

I only like kids if they're fun. Little, little ones, that run around like ewoks. Those are my kind of people.

But whiny kids and kids that leak I try to stay away from.

[Islander9]

Regrettably e kencollapse, all kids sooner or later start to whine or leak (or do much more revolting things.) Fact of life :lol: 'cause they're humans-

[Comet]

I don't mind children so long as they aren't mine. I teach a class of thirteen 6 and 7 year olds ballet, and they're sweet as can be. But I really don't want children simply because I don't want the responsibility that comes with it.

I have full confidence my brother will find someone, settle down, and give my parents all the grandchildren they could want.

I'd much rather be the eccentric ol' aunt who babysits when needed.

[Shivers]

I have limited patience with kids. However, before that patience runs out, I'm really good with kids. And kids like me for some reason. Probably because I'm such a little kid myself sometimes.

(Goes and blows bubbles while giggling)

[kencollapse]

Regrettably e kencollapse, all kids sooner or later start to whine or leak (or do much more revolting things.) Fact of life :lol: 'cause they're humans-

sigh. yeah. this I know. I was just thinking I was so fortunate this past weekend to babysit for my friends' 2 year old, who is any babysitter's dream kid. Super fun ewok with minimal leaking.

[mushroom104]

Oooops, I clicked the wrong button. My answer would be Absolutely no way in Hell! I've never liked children all that much, not even when I was one.

They are cute between the ages of two and six as long as they belong to someone else...but otherwise I don't really want anyting to do with them until they reach the age of at least 15.

I can deal with them in small doses and then I want to give them back.

[Borrible Cal]

Are asexuals more likely to avoid children?

Well, this one is, at least. Don't want any of my own, and I don't want anything to do with anyone else's.

Borrible Cal.

[skieavvi]

I definitely want to have a child (giving birth to one of my own preferred over adoption) once I'm on my own feet and feel financially secure enough to do so. The only problem I've encountered when thinking about this is the "stigma" of having be married first, as cijay said. I really don't think I'll ever be married, both because I'm asexual and don't personally know any asexuals or willing life-long celibates who I could ever end up married to (and I detest the idea of personally seeking someone out entirely for the purpose of fulfilling my own ends anyways), and because I don't really care much for the idea of being someone's wife. I don't think asexuality really has anything to do with it...I may not have ever felt the urge to go through the motions required to procreate, but I have occassionally felt the urge to have a child, especially when I see them. So it's not just mental, but physical as well (unless I'm just really deluded).

[Kakumei]

Frankly, I have very little tolerance for children. I don't know if it's because I've had to put up with so much crap from some of my cousins ever since I was 6, but dealing with children taxes my nerves and they're only acceptable if a) they're largely quiet, and B) they're obedient. I've been around too many brats who felt they didn't have to listen to me because I was "just a big kid." It never occurred to then that this "big kid" knew more than them and could stomp on them quite easily and very well might have if it weren't for the fact that I would've gotten in trouble. On top of that, I don't want to deal with all the issues that come with pregnancy, nor do I want to devote the next 18 years (at least) of my life to such a taxing activity as childraising; it's easier for me to raise animals than a child. I can deal with children once they get to be around 15 or so, but I generally dislike young people anyway; many of them tend to do stupid things that get on my nerves, and as they get older, they often become stupid in different ways (don't get me started on the behavior of certain college students). This is why the friends I have around my age tend to be "atypical" in that regard, and one reason why my other friends are often at least twice my age. Oh yeah, and I don't "do" babytalk. It's just too hard for me to modify my behavior and speech so that children can understand. I swear, I'd be the worst mother ever.

Not that I'm a child-hater, mind you. I have other reasons for not wanting to have children that often outweigh my aversion to them.

*a*rteest, did you have a medical condition that necessitated sterilization? I sometimes bring up the issue of sterilization, but I've heard that doctors won't do it for women of childbearing age who don't have a problem because it would somehow be a total disaster if she had it done only to change her mind later. :roll: If you managed to convince them otherwise, I must say I'm quite surprised.

[TangerinePanda]

How come there's no option for "Hell No!"???

[allyva]

I couldn't answer any way, because I'm quite iffy about having children of my own but don't at all avoid children. Children 'wake me up' when I notice them, in the sense that I tend to focus on them rather than my own inner dialogue. I tend to think of children as quite interesting and cute -- even if I might shake my head at someone's "daddy! daddy! daddy! daddy!" (I *remember* my dad suggesting that I not do this, in not much more than a sentence (and a direct one -- not a hostile or a weary or an annoyed or whatnot expression), and taking it almost instantly to heart.) But then, I think highly of humanity in general.

'Overpopulation' doesn't scare me, either. Wake me up when the Mars Assembly starts paying its citizens to migrate outward ^^

Some of you might find the Story About the Baby/Toddler blogs at http://www.ironycentral.com/ of interest...

I feel some responsibility to be a good influence on children, when I influence them at all. I think I might enjoy the role of a godparent -- some independent supporting figure like that, like all the figures that someone told me used to be common in American extended families.

[hyperfine]

Nope, don't want kids of my own.

I like kids and all (some more than others ) I used to work at a summer camp and it was lots of fun. But it was also nice to give them back.

And I don't deal well with babies. The appeal escapes me.

[Shion]

i find kids amusing. but im too lazy to have my own for now. ack...too much work.

[hafnium]

i can stand kids as long as they are others'