Friend happy she has no grandchildren as world is scary place

We planned to have no children when we married in 1971 because of the threat of Nuclear War but, when one baby came along in 1974 we thought we'd better have another to keep her company. Since then one child and one grandchild has been diagnosed with a very distressing hereditary illness which I also inherited from my dad. I didn't know it was hereditary, I thought his stressful job had caused the condition. Now I worry as much about the possibility of war as I do about their health....but I don't regret having them....

MissAdventure

Yes, I'd bring a baby into the world if i was young, just as our own children have.

I'd drive a 4x4 to the nearest coffee shop, and stagger around under a great big cup of skinny latte whatever, fly off on holiday, and everything else young parents do.

Oh Lord MissA - then you would be one of those Mum's everyone on Fb moans about - probably parking on the zig-zags outside the school, or blocking someone's drive picking your kids up from dance class, chucking your Costa cup out of the car window and swanning off to The Azores in term time.

MissAdventure

Yes, I'd bring a baby into the world if i was young, just as our own children have.

I'd drive a 4x4 to the nearest coffee shop, and stagger around under a great big cup of skinny latte whatever, fly off on holiday, and everything else young parents do.

😁

MissAdventure

Yes, I'd bring a baby into the world if i was young, just as our own children have.

I'd drive a 4x4 to the nearest coffee shop, and stagger around under a great big cup of skinny latte whatever, fly off on holiday, and everything else young parents do.

If this is not sarcasm I totally agree with you, only I would not have a skinny latte, a normal one for me.
I speak as someone who never cared if I was a Gran, people found that odd, but now I have them I love it.

Kim19

A scientist friend gave me a theory which, after deep reflection, I find thoroughly acceptable but somewhat sad. Planet earth will still be here in 400 years but it will be uninhabited and recovering. I can only say thank you earth and sorry for what we humans have done to you.

It’s a theory, nothing more.

ferry23

I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. I have no grandchildren and I've never had a burning desire to be a Grandmother. I'm sure if I did have them, I'd love them to pieces and spoil them rotten but it's never worried me. My children may or may not have made a conscious decision. I don't know, it's not my business.

If you take a step back then you can see the world has always been a scary place and probably always will be. War, drought, famine etc - have always been with us.

Conversely, the world wouldn't continue without procreation and humans will always have a desire to reproduce.

It leads to bigger questions like should women living in extreme poverty without basic facilities such as clean water be having children?

And who are we to judge?

It's a personal choice of course whether to bring children into the world, but if I had my time again I may choose not to have children but it wouldn't be because of the state the world was in.

Good sensible comments 😃

I’m not sure if I’d choose to have children now. I’d probably try to adopt. Yes the world has always been a scary place but there were places where you could escape from a lot of it. Now there aren’t. And now there are so many more people and technology has moved so fast so quickly. It’s terrifying especially as many of the world’s countries are run by power-hungry men. I dread to think what’s coming.

The world is a scary place but I think it always has been and it’s part of the human condition, I suppose. It must have been scary to be a cave man!

I am grateful I have GC and I very much hope that they and other people’s GC will be part of the solution in the future. I have faith in them.

Caleo

Cambsnan, all thoughtful people have been aware of the escalating danger of climate change for years.

absolutely.. our grandchildren will live with the consequences and hopefully find some solutions to help them.. I don't think it will stop people having children though

The world is a scary place, I do think that it always has been but many years ago we didn't have social media so had no idea what was going on in the world. I do know there were paedophiles around due to a personal experience in my youth.

All we can do is to teach them to be aware when out and about, not to be on their phones all the time with their ear buds in when walking alone and try and ensure that they are never alone if possible and they always have someone to go out with and come home with, safety in numbers.

I have four grandchildren all under 20 years of age and worry about them. I also worry about our own children even though they are in their 50's because of this era we are living in, every one seems to be a target for the sc## of the earth.

My Grandchildren aged 20 and 18 say they will not bring children into their world.

We will see,

Sometimes think that people who say they are glad they have no GC say it because their AC have decided not to have any, or unable to have them, and it makes them feel better about it. A sort of justification, “Well, I’m not sorry to have no GC, as the world is such a mess etc etc”.

And reading on GN how besotted some GP’s are, saying how their GC are so loved and special, I can see why the non GP’s are like that.

(And yes, I have 5 GC, but hope I don’t bore other folk about how wonderful they are etc etc).

Cambsnan, all thoughtful people have been aware of the escalating danger of climate change for years.

The world always has been a scary place, WW1, WW2, the Cold War, pestilences and plagues litter history, the Holocaust and pogroms,not to mention tsunamis, meteorites, weather, anything, really, you name it.

When I was heavily pregnant 40 years ago, an elderly acquaintance decided that it was appropriate to tell me that the world was in such a perilous state and it was a terrible thing to be bringing a baby into it. His remarks upset and worried me dreadfully and I never forgave him for it. And now here we are; over 40 years later, people of a similar generation to that man, wondering if it's a bad time to be bringing children into the world. There is no "bad time" for new life.

Calipso

The world has always been a scary place. One of the problems in current times is that MSM is skewed towards the bad stuff and doesn't give equal weight to all the good in the world. Its up to us to evaluate and remember to be grateful.

So true!

A scientist friend gave me a theory which, after deep reflection, I find thoroughly acceptable but somewhat sad. Planet earth will still be here in 400 years but it will be uninhabited and recovering. I can only say thank you earth and sorry for what we humans have done to you.

Yes the world is a scary place, but I don't think it is scarier now than it was in the past.

My grandparents were refugees during WWI. I believe my grandmother was very short because she was malnourished as a child. My parents grew up during WWII. When I was growing up it was the Cold War.

Were things less scary in the 1990s when I was having children? Everyone has their own perspective, but I'm not sure.

The world has always been a scary place. One of the problems in current times is that MSM is skewed towards the bad stuff and doesn't give equal weight to all the good in the world. Its up to us to evaluate and remember to be grateful.

The world has always and will always be a scary place. Nature is a brute. It has always been about survival - not just for humans but all other species of life as well.

Things for humans have improved categorically over the last couple of centuries because of our inventiveness and adaptability. Even before that we were adaptable enough to survive in environments as brutish as arctic and desert and everything in between.

We are now also beginning to improve things for other species – plant, animal, fungal – as well.

"Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet." Gerard Manley Hopkins.

And us too.

Yes it does have bearing on the title of the thread FP
I maintain what you’ve never had you don’t miss. No experience of grandchildren. Yes a yearning.
Just like I’d like a brand new car.
But as it’s not going to happen, you move past it don’t you?

I don’t have grandchildren but whether my children have children or not is entirely up to them. I don’t know how I’d feel if I were younger now, the world is of course a different place to how it was 40 years ago but I suspect I would still have children.

Yes, I'd bring a baby into the world if i was young, just as our own children have.

I'd drive a 4x4 to the nearest coffee shop, and stagger around under a great big cup of skinny latte whatever, fly off on holiday, and everything else young parents do.

Not quite the subject of the title though, is it?

I would miss having GCs terribly, more than - but currently I would feel selfish imposing the world we have in front to us.

I just think what you’ve never had you don’t miss.
I’ve never owned a brand new car.