Why I’m not having kids
My mom was a senior manager at a global stem-cell bank when she retired. While my brother and I were growing up, she worked part-time. I’ve heard her say more than once: “If I had just had another 16 years, I could have gone so high.”
Am I being selfish if I don’t have children?
I’m selfish for not committing to my hypothetical child’s well-being. But I will have a lot more attention and money to shower on real-life nieces, nephews, mentees and philanthropic causes.
Also, not having a child is the most important thing I could do to reduce my carbon footprint, according to a 2009 study by Oregon State University statisticians. (Of course, like all parents, I believe my theoretical child would have grown up to become a brilliant physicist and saved the world from global warming, so this is a moot point.)
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Who cares?
jawkneemusic on January 31, 2013 at 10:41 PM
You could kill yourself.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on January 31, 2013 at 10:43 PM
Thanks for your contribution to human evolution.
ElectricPhase on January 31, 2013 at 10:47 PM
Personally, I am 100% on board with EVERY liberal twit eschewing children. I’d love to see them end their existence.
Warner Todd Huston on January 31, 2013 at 10:48 PM
It’s All About Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XHkMPA1334
sharrukin on January 31, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Fewer self absorbed morons. Up twinkles!
TexasDan on January 31, 2013 at 10:50 PM
I only read this excerpt, but….is this a put on?
Dongemaharu on January 31, 2013 at 10:52 PM
That’s ok, we need more White children in the Northwest anyway. Thanks for sharing.
Bulletchaser on January 31, 2013 at 10:52 PM
Children are a blessing. It seems no one on the Left understands that. They see children as commodities and tools to indoctrinate for the greater good of the state.
It always makes me wonder what some of them experienced themselves when they were children.
INC on January 31, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Translation: I am horribly unfulfilled and I feel the need to write about why I’m not.
John the Libertarian on January 31, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Then dismantle the Department of Education. Liberals don’t need to have kids if they can just indoctrinate someone else’s.
mintycrys on January 31, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Maybe that evolution thang is telling you something you need to know.
John the Libertarian on January 31, 2013 at 10:55 PM
Why I’m not having kids.
Two numbers… “2008″ & “2012″
Glenn Jericho on January 31, 2013 at 10:57 PM
I’m in full agreement.
Watch out for Common Core.
http://michellemalkin.com/2013/01/25/rotten-to-the-core-part-2-readin-writin-and-deconstructionism/
INC on January 31, 2013 at 10:57 PM
Bqhatevwr.
No one should have kids if they don’t want to, but her carbon footprint is a really silly reason.
juliesa on January 31, 2013 at 11:00 PM
It’s almost enough to make me believe Darwin’s theory.
Splashman on January 31, 2013 at 11:00 PM
Since liberalism is a mental disorder, she’s doing the best thing for the gene pool. Not to mention the voter pool.
Thank you, Ms. Chan!
Splashman on January 31, 2013 at 11:01 PM
The way the current left has destroyed the engine of prosperity and liberty in this country makes me happy that I don’t have kids.
tom daschle concerned on January 31, 2013 at 11:07 PM
I guess then that my children will be paying for your Social Security as well as mine.
Charlemagne on January 31, 2013 at 11:07 PM
It’s a free country. Just don’t share your self-absorption prattle with me.
Blake on January 31, 2013 at 11:11 PM
She sounds like she’s trying to convince herself. I don’t have kids either but I don’t feel compelled to explain why on the op-ed page of a major U.S. newspaper. As someone noted upthread, who cares?
P.S. I’m all for liberals offing themselves to reduce the planet’s carbon footprint.
NoLeftTurn on January 31, 2013 at 11:14 PM
U.G.L.Y you ain’t got no alliby, u ugly, eh hey, u ugly
rukiddingme on January 31, 2013 at 11:14 PM
Primordial, good point except for she should take a bunch of friends with.
arnold ziffel on January 31, 2013 at 11:16 PM
I feel for her husband when she hits her low-carbon and childless mid-40s.
rogerb on January 31, 2013 at 11:19 PM
To each her own… except for that “carbon footprint” nonsense. But why must you say it’s not for biological reasons? Just to make sure everyone knows you’re an idealogue but one who craves acceptance?
An Objectivist on January 31, 2013 at 11:23 PM
There sure are a lot of *******s around anymore. It’s kind of depressing, sometimes.
And of course, a good % of them seem to write for newspapers.
Oh and she’s not an ******* because she’s not having kids, she’s just an ******* because she’s an *******.
It’s one thing to be self-absorbed. But do you have to be so self-conscious about being self-absorbed?
Really, lady….nobody cares. Good luck and good night.
Why is it that every business meeting I attend lately seems to have at least one of these jerks present? Know-nothings who are as unpleasant and ignorant in their professional lives as they are in their personal lives. Yuck.
Sorry for the rant. These people are finally starting to get on my nerves, lately.
Dreadnought on January 31, 2013 at 11:24 PM
I think its cute she thinks anyone cares.
Spliff Menendez on January 31, 2013 at 11:24 PM
I remember when I was young and naive, the meme was overpopulation and overcrowding and we were going all going to live in a 2 foot square of space standing up. So I thought maybe I shouldn’t have kids to save the planet! Now we’re not supposed to have kids to reduce our carbon footprint? So is abortion environmentally friendly now?
Anyway, I have four kids and they are blessing enough, but it’s a small bonus that this irritates the lefties.
toby11 on January 31, 2013 at 11:25 PM
Why? She’ll probably find he’s increased carbon footprints behind her back with another woman half her carbon footprint. He’ll be in an unsustainable situation, much to his carbon credit.
mintycrys on January 31, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Why? Is it just some kind of strange leftist need to spend money on things they don’t need or will ever use?
Dollayo on January 31, 2013 at 11:26 PM
I share the enthusiasm of many others that such a self-absorbed ninny is exiting the gene pool, but there’s some real insight into how she got so self-absorbed in the first place:
Can you imagine FREQUENTLY hearing your own mother (who gave up full-time work to raise you) say, “If I had just had another 16 years, I could have gone so high.”
Wow.
SoRight on January 31, 2013 at 11:26 PM
.
No I’m sure that when you’re old and infirm being tended to by a minimum wage worker, you’ll be able to look back on all the great, important things you did with you life and ignore being slapped with your own slipper, or having your things stolen, or the occassional bedsore.
.
Life will be just grand for you!
LincolntheHun on January 31, 2013 at 11:29 PM
The manbearpig religion.
The Rogue Tomato on January 31, 2013 at 11:34 PM
OK… But I assume you’re not going to apply for any Social Security benefits in the future right? Since they come from the next generation of workers, and you’re not adding any you’re acknowledging you’re not living up to your part of the bargain.
foreman3 on January 31, 2013 at 11:35 PM
Sure thing darling. Then one morning should you ever get married, you will roll over next to your husband one morning and say these words. “You ruined my life!!!” Ms. Chan, when your biological clock start to gong you may find yourself in quite a quandary. Why don’t you live your life and try not to predetermine ever aspect of it. Or not.
Bmore on January 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM
another lost ziffel brother.
arnold ziffel on January 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM
start=starts
Bmore on January 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM
Oh and Ms Chan. It won’t be your husbands fault. ; )
Bmore on January 31, 2013 at 11:37 PM
Do you deliver and put out?
arnold ziffel on January 31, 2013 at 11:38 PM
I don’t understand how or why two people get married without deciding if they want kids. Shouldn’t you know that from the get-go?
And why do social liberals get married anyway? To them, those things reserved for marriage – sex, living together, raising children, can freely be done outside of marriage. How do the “men” see that as worth the financial risk?
Transpo on January 31, 2013 at 11:42 PM
Yes, I noticed that as well. Self-absorbed parent begets monstrously self-absorbed kid. Who are so monstrously self-absorbed that they rationalize it by telling themselves they are reducing their “carbon footprint”.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Also telling was this: “Will I regret it? Probably sometimes. Just like parents sometimes regret their choice.”
I don’t know of any parents who “sometimes regret their choice”. This woman needs to get around more.
Friend of mine just lost his kid, a combat vet who died in an accident stateside. He’d jump in front of a moving train if it would bring his kid back.
Dreadnought on January 31, 2013 at 11:43 PM
So Mrs. Chan, what’s your annual percent contribution to the hundreds of tons of your newspapers:
that require massive amounts of electricity and water/wastewater to produce and recycle, not to mention the diesel burned on the trip from their origin, the diesel burned on the trip to the printer, the diesel burned on the trip to the customer, the asbestos in the brake pads distributed into the atmosphere by the hundreds of transportation devices, the diesel burned by those hundreds of vehicles on their empty return trips, the oil used to produce the consumable tires, etc., etc.
Good call on not having a kid because of the carbon footprint, btw.
rogerb on January 31, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Have kids, don’t have kids, I don’t !@#!%^$ing care. Just quit making everyone else pay for your choices and quit acting like you’re so superior.
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 11:44 PM
I’m not at all surprised. There’s a MASSIVE cultural taboo against parents ever expressing regret for their decision. Be that anything from walking the floor with a howling infant for the tenth night in a row, to Junior landing in juvenile court for his teenage capers.
Your child has to be an absolute hellion before you can even mention regret to your own family members without getting shame dropped on you like an anvil on Wile E. Coyote. And God help you if the frustration is because your child is special-needs and you say “I just can’t take this anymore!”
MelonCollie on January 31, 2013 at 11:50 PM
Don’t.
Doesn’t affect me at all.
Live your life and leave me alone.
I’ll do the same.
Hog Wild on February 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Carbon footprint?
Such despicable nihilism
blatantblue on February 1, 2013 at 12:02 AM
There’s a difference between fatigue and frustration on one hand, and actual regret on the other.
The callousness of this woman’s mother appalls me. Even if someone profoundly regretted their kid, I can’t imagine saying something like that to one of your kids, not because of a “cultural taboo” but because of the nasty emotional damage it would cause.
Dreadnought on February 1, 2013 at 12:04 AM
NYT Sunday circulation 2,003,247, so about 17% of those numbers would give us the Seattle Times’ impact.
Discounting recycling (and the uniquely wasteful techniques newspaper recycling involves*), it takes 663,000 trees just to print a year of the Sunday edition of the paper she writes for.
Hilarious.
rogerb on February 1, 2013 at 12:08 AM
* It’s not really debatable. They’d pay you if it was worth something. See aluminum/metals.
Show me where a private entity will pay you for your trash newspapers and I’ll concede the point.
rogerb on February 1, 2013 at 12:10 AM
You don’t want kids? Fine. No biggie.
Just don’t dress it up in some high and mighty nonsense about being ecologically responsible or having more money to throw at your pet causes. No need to act like you’re smarter than those who have kids. Unless of course you’re trying to convince yourself of something.
CurtZHP on February 1, 2013 at 12:14 AM
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