Fox News Latino
An article for those who need the occasional reminder why you don't watch Fox.
Apparently, we don't know what we're missing. As if that is somehow especially true of having kids, and not of every important decision we make it life. You don't know what you're missing by failing to move to India and join and ashram. You don't know what you're missing doing the rewarding work of America's firefighters. We don't know what we're missing when we fail to join a convent, live in Paris, buy a farm, live in Greenwich Village, get a PhD.
Life is full of choices, most of which we make without really experiencing what we're passing up. The world is rife with opportunities to do all sorts of things, the majority of which we must necessarily overlook if we want to stay sane. Somehow, perhaps because it used to be a biological imperative, perhaps because it's the thing most people do, or perhaps it is because there's no glut of journalists trying out those things I listed, parenting gets harped on as if it is this unitary experience. To me, that just speaks of a lack of creativity, and a lack of awareness of all the things in the world we take a pass on every day.
He also puts forth the "it's worth it" fallacy. As if parenting were not intensely personal experience whose benefits and costs will vary widely by person, as if it weren't different for each person. As if the perspective of someone who wanted to have children is somehow compelling to those of us who feel differently about it.
You know what, Mr. Sanchez? You're missing out on something too. You're missing out on what it's like to love someone's company so much you would never dream of bringing another person into the household and changing the dynamic of your marriage. You're missing out on what it is like to share your life with one and only one person for decades, building the kind of life where every Sunday afternoon spent reading in silence is golden. You're missing out on the freedom of being single, the independence of having no one to account to, and growing into adulthood with the evolving meaning and rewards of the single lifestyle. And you know what? It's worth it.
For some.
Technorati Tag: childfree
An article for those who need the occasional reminder why you don't watch Fox.
Apparently, we don't know what we're missing. As if that is somehow especially true of having kids, and not of every important decision we make it life. You don't know what you're missing by failing to move to India and join and ashram. You don't know what you're missing doing the rewarding work of America's firefighters. We don't know what we're missing when we fail to join a convent, live in Paris, buy a farm, live in Greenwich Village, get a PhD.
Life is full of choices, most of which we make without really experiencing what we're passing up. The world is rife with opportunities to do all sorts of things, the majority of which we must necessarily overlook if we want to stay sane. Somehow, perhaps because it used to be a biological imperative, perhaps because it's the thing most people do, or perhaps it is because there's no glut of journalists trying out those things I listed, parenting gets harped on as if it is this unitary experience. To me, that just speaks of a lack of creativity, and a lack of awareness of all the things in the world we take a pass on every day.
He also puts forth the "it's worth it" fallacy. As if parenting were not intensely personal experience whose benefits and costs will vary widely by person, as if it weren't different for each person. As if the perspective of someone who wanted to have children is somehow compelling to those of us who feel differently about it.
You know what, Mr. Sanchez? You're missing out on something too. You're missing out on what it's like to love someone's company so much you would never dream of bringing another person into the household and changing the dynamic of your marriage. You're missing out on what it is like to share your life with one and only one person for decades, building the kind of life where every Sunday afternoon spent reading in silence is golden. You're missing out on the freedom of being single, the independence of having no one to account to, and growing into adulthood with the evolving meaning and rewards of the single lifestyle. And you know what? It's worth it.
For some.
Technorati Tag: childfree
4 comments:
I'm child free and I like Fox. Nice job alienating people in your first sentence.
"You're missing out on what it's like to love someone's company so much you would never dream of bringing another person into the household and changing the dynamic of your marriage."
Whenever I hear "you'll never know real love without a child" and its many incarnations, I have to wonder at the quality of that person's marriage. Why do so many people think it's impossible to love your partner so much that it hurts? So much that you want to spend all your free time focusing on them, instead of a third party?
My (childfree) aunt once said people would look at her in wonderment when she said she and her husband would go on weeks-long camping trips together, because people couldn't believe that they didn't get sick of each other. She thought that was a pretty sad commentary on those people's relationships.
I agree w the first Anon poster- I am happily childfree and also like Fox News. I'd been reading and enjoying your posts; what a shame that you had to alienate me with a gratuitous cheap shot.
I understand that not all childfree people agree politically. What I don't understand is why I can't direct a post to those who think Fox is too anti-childfree. The opening sentence stated that the post is for people who don't watch Fox.
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