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Word. I don’t particularly care if somebody doesn’t want kids — parenting is a hard job, and not one everyone is cut out for. But general dislike of children never sits right with me. First, I thought we had agreed that it’s rude to dislike people based on a characteristic they can’t change. Second, everybody on earth was a child once. The biggest anti-natalist in the world was once that 3-year-old loudly melting down in the middle of the aisle at Safeway.

I do judge parents who don’t at least try to keep their kids under control in public — but that’s the fault of the parents, not the children.

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Most anti-kid people who I have met will say that they hated kids when they WERE a kid, too. Which...fine, okay, I didn't always get along with my peers at ANY stage of life. But I think there's a difference between saying "childhood can be a restrictive, annoying time and kids can be dicks to each other" and "the entire group of people between ages 0 and 18 are terrible."

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I hate that explanation from child haters. I mean, I didn't get along with other kids when I was a kid because I was a strange, prickly child who didn't know how to properly socialize, but I love kids as an adult (which is good because I have one and she was very social during her childhood, so for a single child household, we had a lot of kids in the house).

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Oh, same and same. My feelings on kids as a childless-mostly-by-choice adult is one of occasional amusement and a general feeling of wanting them to be happy, even if occasionally one or two of them are slightly irritating throughout the day.

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Yeah, I’ve heard the “I hated kids when I was a kid” thing too. I just wish that the common experience caused a more compassionate outlook. It’s possible the 6-year-old kicking your seat on the plane hates being a kid just as much as you did. But they can’t do anything about it, any more than you could.

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And most of the time, any problem on a plane is going to be the fault of the airline/plane, not the fault of the other passenger.

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