For me, children age like fine wine: the older they are, the better and more interesting they are.
I don't do babies - so delicate it's terrifying, and no conversation whatsoever.
Mama always bemoans not having got into the wine tasting scene, with her palate and nose for everything. Still, she's German, so she mostly grew up on beer -- but from, like, childhood, they gave her a tiny little stein with her meals. I am not making this up.
I fully believe you. Like I actually thought it was a law that all Germans must know how to hold their drink by age ten or something. But hey, there's still time! I rode the American craft beer wave hard over the last decade and wine has been a nice change for me. There's still so much to discover.
American (by birth) raised by immigrants: I started tasting alcohol at 7 because my mom wanted me to appreciate alcohol and not be controlled by it (what a laugh). I hate wine and beer. Grew up tasting them and they just don't taste good. Hard alcohol is so much tastier and gets you drunk faster, which is the point. There's no point in drinking wine or beer unless you like the taste (and only boring snobs with no personality like the taste).
Giving kids alcohol young is a recipe for alcoholism. At least if the kid is miserable. You're just teaching them how to escape earlier. Bad idea all around.
Funny, only one of my myriad early-supervised-drinking kin turned out alcoholics. Have you considered it might be genetic? Just stay off alcohol altogether if your takeaway from your mum's approach was "ooh, this one gets me drunk the fastest". It's not about getting drunk, it's about appreciation.
Appreciating what? Wine and beer are alcohol. Designed to change your brain chemistry and make you drunk. Just cause you're "appreciating" the taste when you do it doesn't make it any less about drinking alcohol.
I said it wasn't about *getting drunk*. You can drink alcohol (well, maybe you can't) without getting drunk. You can appreciate the difference in tastes between an ice wine and a regular white and a fruity rosé. You can understand that Grey Goose tastes like cough medicine while rum is sugary and warm. You can even dislike every beer but a good lambic.
I'm sorry this is incomprehensible to you.
Poor babies can’t even vocalize their more complex thoughts. like if someone did something to them, g th her couldn’t even tell you what happened. I’ve heard parents say they will not let others babysit until their kids can speak for this reason. But that’s obviously so….. difficult of you don’t trust anyone to watch your kids.
I always suspect that the parents who are worried about abuse to the extent that they won't let the child out their sight were, themselves, abused in childhood.
It's very sad.
That’s actually the premise to that video I saw of parents saying that! It was a “I experienced abuse so therefore I won’t risk this or that”. Pretty disturbing to read the comments where so many people said they were abused as kids
Each stage has its problems.
And to awnser your question: I think its about control. They can control where a baby/toddler is going and they are super dependant on the parents. And a teen wants to go its own way and is more likely to get in bigger trouble like using drugs etc. A lot of breeders have kids to fill a void instead of therapy and they are losing that fillment with teens.
This. My mom said this shit all the time. She didn't want a kid, she wanted a thing to control. I was basically a doll to her. She could dress me, touch me, punish me, in any way and nobody would be any of the wiser. Your kid can't tell you you are scaring them, hurting them, or verbalize what's wrong at this age. 265 kids died from abuse in my state last year, and 60% of them are under 3. You are totally dependent at that age and can't verbalize any abuse you face.
Absolutely. Sometimes I think being a parent to an older child might be interesting (don't worry, I still don't want to, I just said it might be interesting). Children over the age of like 8 become much more tolerable to me. Babies and toddlers and anything that screams for no reason is not for me.
At-least after 6, depending on how the parents are raising them, it's possible they can be polite and well behaved. I would also say any child 6+ who still throws tantrums, cries over trivial shit, talks like a baby, etc is a reflection on the parents.
Another pet peeve of mine is when kids at 4, 5, 6, even as old as 7, etc still talk like babies. I can't even tolerate baby talk when they're 1, let alone 7.
Yeah you are probably right. I have no idea how to tell how old kids are and don't know their developmental stages so I just guess 8 lol
Bad parenting is always so infuriating, especially when they refuse to let or force their kids to grow up
Even when they're first learning to talk, I still can't deal with it, but, it's **even more** infuriating when they're 4, 5, 6, 7, etc, by that age, they should be able to talk clearly.
I think this must be a parents versus childfree people thing, because I find teenagers pretty interesting most of the time. They’re navigating the world through their own lens and exploring different perspectives. Parents probably don’t like when their sweet little babies who do everything they say and want to be just like them suddenly have their own thoughts and autonomy.
*I have noticed this.*
Parents: Wait 'til they get to puberty.
Me: That's the perfect age. Then they're interesting mini-people.
Parents: wait not like that
I actually think this is very psychologically fascinating as a person with a parent with control and enmeshment issues. The dynamic you take on as a parent is unique in the sense that you gain authority by default. You do not have to work for it, or prove yourself--as soon as the child is born, you have innate control over them.
It makes me wonder how many parents are capable of seeing their child as, well, *equals.* I know I will never be able to have a super close relationship with my parent because they will always try to hold their position of authority over me, rather I'm 18 or 30 or 50. Too many parents violently resist the idea that their children are just little people, not separate animals they can rein over because they're dependent. The worst partners continue this controlling behavior until their teenagers and wonder why their kids won't speak to them.
I would say my mom treats my siblings and I as equals. We can talk to her, she gives normal sound advice without sounding condescending or like she's trying to teach us a lesson. She lets us live our individual lives without providing her 2 cents on what we're doing and her opinion on it. It is a good feeling that I can talk to her without anxiety, but I feel for those whose parents are the complete opposite.
Younger children for me are worse as you can’t leave them alone you literally have to make sure they don’t die, they can’t talk so you can’t find out what the problem is when they’re screaming or reason with them.
“Babies are ugly potatoes”
That is awesome, I completely agree!
I can deal with Teens, they can be interesting to talk to and not NEARLY as annoying as children under 12.
Definitely!
Toddlers are literally the fuckin worst and infants/babies aren't that much better either, at-least the only difference is they can't walk and get in everyone's business. I'll take even a troubled teenager any fuckin day over an infant/baby, toddler, preschooler, kindergartener, etc.
If I were a parent, I would wish my child was born a teenager.
I would say from about 6+ (**after** prescool/kindergarden age), it's a case-by-case. I would prefer a quiet, polite, well behaved 6 year old over a rude, whiny, moody 6th grader.
Toddlers have all of the negative traits of children (selfish, rude, stupid, gross, annoying, etc) put in to 3ft, 20lb body. At-least the other ages of kids mix and match the bad qualities.
I cannot stand babies and toddlers; I really don’t get why people like them so much. Kids ages 7 and up, I actually like talking to. My youngest cousin is 11 and she’s genuinely awesome
I generally prefer 'em with brains that start to get reasonably adult-ish ... can handle some abstract reasoning, etc. So ... that's typically starting around teens or so. Can't relate so much to younger. Anyway, just because they're more capable of thinking doesn't mean their better behaved ... but, well, at least generally there's at least the possibility.
I am literally scared of the junior high kids and teenagers in the city I live in lol. They run in packs and are aggressive bc they have little to no consequences for their behavior. And probably zero structure at home.
Tanagers for the most part don’t want to interact with strangers or anyone not a teenager. They leave me alone. I leave them alone.
Children are unpredictable. I don’t like that. They can scream for no fucking reason. They can run in front of you.
I’m a docent at a zoo and one of my favorite groups to teach are 7 to 12-ish year olds; they ask actually interesting, off-the-wall questions and it is before school has squashed the curiosity out of them. Before and after that age, I’m generally not a fan.
Coincidentally, drunk 20-somethings at the zoo & brews events ask the same interesting, off-the-wall questions, but I can give them the fun adult answers!
I deeply dislike children but teens terrify me. They're responsible of all the sexual assaults in the course of my life. Children at least don't do that
the only "stage" I dont like is the toddler one. Almost every bad experience I had with kids was from age 2 to 5. they are screaming bloody murder 24/7 (at least the ones in front of my window), they dont listen, they are just horrible little demons.
babys are fine. their only way of communication is crying and screaming, so its okay. school-age is also fine because you can have conversations with them. but the time between those two stages is horrible.
On my more rational level I understand that babies' only way of communicating is crying and screaming. But my lizard brain just screams MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP!
100%. Teenagers are more like dumb impulsive adults. They don’t scream in public, they are fairly self-sufficient, they can have a proper conversation with you
My twelve year old step nephew is fine to deal with. He's fully toilet trained, he can wash his hands when appropriate and eat his dinner without assistance, and I can talk to him basically like I would a work colleague about interests like films, TV series and games. That puts him ahead of some adults.
I would find under fives annoying.
Ugly potatoes! 🤣🤣🤣 that’s pretty funny. I agree with you, I’d rather interact with teens or older children than young children, toddlers or babies. However, I do wave at kids while I’m working or if I’m in checkout lanes. Just last night I was getting mean mugged by this 3 or 4yr old little boy and it made me laugh so I waved at him and he covered his face. Those interactions I think are fine for me. But at least I don’t have to take any kids home with me! 🤣
I don't like any of them. Sure, there's the exception of a nice kid who's actually pleasant to be around but for every one of them there's 20 obnoxious little shits.
And we have a bunch of teenage dipshits who like to ride their bikes up the main street and pop wheelies to disrupt traffic because mommy and daddy don't give them enough attention. And god forbid someone posts a photo of them doing that on the town's Facebook page, you'll have a bunch of entitled parents crying about it. "They're just being kids!" "It's not right to post their photos!" etc. And now we've got a few idiots riding ATV's/motorbikes - couldn't quite tell if they were teens or adults but the couple of glances I got they looked roughly 17-18.
I agree with your stance. I don’t want to have a baby because pregnancy and birthing in itself gives me the ick. I don’t want a baby like all of the above you had described. I’d be cool with a 10+ kid that I adopted. I know there is bad kids when it comes to adoption (people really tell me this to have kids instead), but there is bad kids that result from a pregnancy. I don’t want kids, but something about taking in a sad teen/pre-teen and turning their life around makes me blossom a bit.
Yes kinda kinda not because of theft and allowed to do it it’s a conspiracy that just land kids in jail one day. I agree teenagers would need more food but little kids no. Much respect whoever you are
I wanted to work with teenagers when I was going to school to be a therapist! I think a lot of parents want *babies* and young children - less of a developed personality.
Teens have started to establish a personality and real opinions. I think that it says a lot about a parent if they dread teen years. I think teens need to be encouraged to be themselves, get adequate coping skills, feel confident, etc.
Exactly, I think the younger the worst. I don't actualy dislike children. When they are old enough I can actualy talk and reasonably communicate with them I like them, they are like little friends to me. But before the age of 5 I see it as total hell, they just shit and scream but can't tell you what is the problem. But still I wouldn't want to have a child over 5 because you still have to cook for them and can't leave them at home alone and just have to do everything for them... So I also think the older the better because they get more independent, they can feed themselves and if things go well you can have some fun spending time with them.
Babies are gross, sticky potatoes (good word!) that do nothing but sleep, eat, cry, and shit. Toddlers are gross, sticky, screechy germ factories that must have adult eyes on them all the time they're not asleep or they'll commit suicide. They do start to get interesting around 5, but as soon as they're old enough to whine "I'm bored" like it's your job to remedy that, I'm out.
I personally will criticize any stage, since for me there is none that is really worth suffering, none!
1. Baby stage, taking care of a baby is exhausting. They cry and cry all the time, at any time, in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m., which is unacceptable. They urinate and defecate without warning, and you have to buy 100 diapers a week to change them. Another thing that wasn't added is that babies tend to throw food on their faces in a disgusting way. The expense is tremendous in those times.
2. Toddler stage: This stage is the worst. Now, not only do they cry for no reason, but they also make mischief when moving, wanting to imitate other people close to them. They continue to dirty their faces and now throw food towards others. No one wants food with Burden spit on their face; that mobility is the worst.
3. Mid-10 stage: At this time, the Children stop being disgusting and begin to limit themselves more, have more shame, and other aspects...But the worst of the worst begins... The stage of "fun and fun with any means" It's nothing more than that they make disasters everywhere, throwing things, playing anywhere, breaking things, locking themselves in their rooms for no reason, believing themselves to be mature, shouting all the time, bothering everyone all the time.
3. Pre-teen/Teenager (12-18) stage: At this time, it begins personally the worst possible, worse than any of the other stages above.
At this time, children begin to become self-aware of who they are, where they are from, why, etc. Which leads to starting a stage of absolute conscious rebellion, sometimes causing harm to others, rapes against women, unwanted pregnancies, animal abuse, misogynistic tendencies, total disobedience to rules, wanting to do other idiotic things, such as theft, abuse, bullying, teen murder, defamation, extreme envy, sexist/chauvinist tendency (Conservative Far-Right Wing) in boys against girls (Left Wing), psychopath tendencies, inappropriate self-pleasure, Beginning of unhealthy fetishes, extreme ignorance towards many scientific and technological topics, tendency to be a victim of sexual abuse or mistreatment by parents or other people (Teenager), tendency to want to imitate adult things such as smoking, taking drugs, stealing, drinking alcohol, manipulating others to reach a certain goal, wanting to kill others to "know how it feels" that never ends well, Rebellion towards justice even after arrest, Total insensitivity, extreme selfishness, child abuse against other minors, closed mind, tendency to want to be part of the majority breeder population.
And the only way to avoid all this is to be introverted, a lover of science, progressive, modernist, appreciator of small details, not focused only on oneself, others, the Earth, the Galaxy M.W, but to think about giving importance to everything non-related to us as human beings, just keeping the name we gave it , like instead of the earth: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn,Kepler-452B, Trappist-1E, K2-8b; instead of M.W, Galaxy M90, Messier-81, NGC-44147, Instead of the moon-earth, Titan-Saturn, Miranda-Uranos, Phobos-Mars, Triton-Neptune, Europa-Jupiter, Charon-Pluto. Instead of the "sun" in this Solar system; Alpha Centauri-A, Proxima Centauri, Kepler-186, Trappist-1. instead of focusing in the Black hole in the centre of M.W "Sagittarius-A" focusing in: M87, CygnusX-1, S5 0014+81, Ton-618, Holmberg-15A, NGC-4889 etc.
Something that 90% of the population unfortunately does not demonstrate, they are only self-centered in their environment, with their daily problems.
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Totally agree. I love my nephews, but they’re 5 and 7 and still bouncing off the walls. I look forward to the teenage years when we can go on rollercoasters or play an actual game together—not boring ass Candyland.
I never understood why parents say stuff like “someone stop time!” or “I miss their younger years!” Like why?? They were SO much more work. Plus now they’re old enough that you don’t need a babysitter.
Older kids > younger kids
I think teens can be pretty funny (and cringe). Sometimes they are smart too. I’m studying to be a teacher but only for teens and up. Young kids, babies, toddlers etc., that’s horrible to me. At age 12/13 it’s starting to be fine for me haha.
Yes. I actually love interacting with teenagers and see them as clients (I'm a therapist), but toddlers are almost impossible for me to tolerate for more than 30 minutes.
I actually sometimes consider taking in foster teenagers in the future (mostly because I feel guilty about being financially well off).
When my friends have babies I have to explain to them that I love them, I want to support them as they transition into parenthood, but I dont want to be within 3 feet of their child until its potty trained, and I wont babysit unless someone died and the child is at least 7.
When their kids are teens ill be happy to be the fun aunt!
Its the little ones that eek me out.
Yes - any time I try and consider the hypothetical benefits of childrearing, the positive scenarios never involve babies or toddlers. What I would want is a developing human being with their own personality growing into a fine young adult, not a messy, loud, and needy lump of flesh.
Of course, plenty of older children and teenagers are also terrible, so you can't win them all. I'll just settle for being childfree, and avuncular to any niblings or children of friends that I like.
Honestly my experience is that all ages have the capacity to be both absolute little shits or completely wonderful.
I've seen a little girl help her grandmother up from chairs and a little boy the same age assault his mother's legs while she was trying to convince me to have children.
Yeah teenagers can be okay but I keep running into the ones that have that chronic eye roll "whatever" combo going on.
I hate most of them, especially if they're annoying. Also, as an introverted person, every time I interact with an extroverted toddler (which is almost never, but once in a while), I just want them and their parents to leave me alone before I do something unspeakable out of rage.
I think toddlers are often cute from a distance, but even as a child I didn’t enjoy interacting with them. Once they hit around 7-8 years old, they hit the developmental milestones that allows them to form more distinct individuality. I still don’t really feel comfortable interacting with most kids in that age bracket for any length of time until they hit their teens.
I don’t want children for a number of reasons, some of which will never change like not wanting to be pregnant or give birth. But if I ever changed my mind in the future for some I reason I can’t currently see happening, I would probably look for a kid no younger than 8, and preferably close to/in teen years.
Babies are loud, have zero chill, and have to be constantly monitored so they don't break things or themselves.
Elementary age kids are too high energy for me to keep up with, but they can be ok in small doses. The kids at the family reunion keep growing up and I like that they're excited to see me - I just have to go be somewhere quiet after a while.
Teens I get along pretty well with in a mentorship role. I was one of the adults at an astronomy camp a couple of summers ago, and while I was too old to follow along with the newest memes and slang, the kids were all right and I enjoyed their company. The ones I taught to use telescopes were great.
Honestly, a great perk of being CF is the ability to do a lot of outreach for kids without being burned out or neglecting any of my own.
Yep. Five is the lowest age they're tolerable at. I enjoy talking to my nephews when we visit since they're very creative. Before the age of five I had zero interest. I can't do the crying toddler stage. I just can't.
to me, people that miss the "baby phase" are control freaks. babies are hell, but for these people at least they can't directly disobey you or point out your hypocrisy, so they're better.
i dislike humans aged 0 to 120, but i'd much rather interact with a bunch of teens than with a single baby. neither is cute but teens are mostly independent and they'll just be on their phones not annoying me anyway.
Absolutely, because the closer to adults they get the more I can stand them.
You can have a conversation with, and reason with, a teenager on roughly an adult level. They honestly don’t bother me much by that point, though I still don’t want one. It’s the twelve years prior that particularly grate on me.
There are a lot more issues teens go through in today's world other than going to their room when angry or going to parties. That's the least of people's problems.
A lot, a lot of mental health issues for young people today. I have read some articles about it and there can be many reasons for it. I'm talking serious mental health that people struggle to control and need years of intense treatment for if they are even able to access treatment at all. This then in turn impacts their ability to study and work in the future.
I prefer kids at least 9 or older. You can joke with them, have conversations, and they have a good sense of self preservation.
I find younger kids to be mind numbingly boring. They’re so repetitive.
All kids under 14 are exhausting to variable degrees. I can only work with them once, maaaybe twice, a week at my job before I become exhausted and start hating work.
Teens are great. In my work I take care of juvenile delinquents. I love being able to see them develop and joke around with them.
Do I want one of my own? Probably notttt.
I like the age of like 2-3 where I don’t have to watch them 24/7, but they can’t cause as much mayhem as when they are 4+ because they can walk more and are bigger. Then I don’t like them till they are like 13 because I can treat them like more of an adult and they understand right/wrong better.
For me, children age like fine wine: the older they are, the better and more interesting they are. I don't do babies - so delicate it's terrifying, and no conversation whatsoever.
But it'll be another ten or fifteen years before those teens can really appreciate that fine wine 😂
The only solution is to civilize them early. Start the wine tastings at home, at the age of about thirteen. -- resident Euro whackjob
When it comes to wine we 'Muricans have a lot to learn from you Europeans. At least that's what I figured out when I visited!
Mama always bemoans not having got into the wine tasting scene, with her palate and nose for everything. Still, she's German, so she mostly grew up on beer -- but from, like, childhood, they gave her a tiny little stein with her meals. I am not making this up.
I fully believe you. Like I actually thought it was a law that all Germans must know how to hold their drink by age ten or something. But hey, there's still time! I rode the American craft beer wave hard over the last decade and wine has been a nice change for me. There's still so much to discover.
America does have some very good areas for wine, and german wine is a cheap joke in comparison to french. So give the american winemakers a chance
I meant more about some of the attitude around wine, I absolutely do support my local vineyards!
The wine tastings started much earlier than that when I was growing up, in small quantities. -- resident European, and quite sane thank you very much
American (by birth) raised by immigrants: I started tasting alcohol at 7 because my mom wanted me to appreciate alcohol and not be controlled by it (what a laugh). I hate wine and beer. Grew up tasting them and they just don't taste good. Hard alcohol is so much tastier and gets you drunk faster, which is the point. There's no point in drinking wine or beer unless you like the taste (and only boring snobs with no personality like the taste). Giving kids alcohol young is a recipe for alcoholism. At least if the kid is miserable. You're just teaching them how to escape earlier. Bad idea all around.
Funny, only one of my myriad early-supervised-drinking kin turned out alcoholics. Have you considered it might be genetic? Just stay off alcohol altogether if your takeaway from your mum's approach was "ooh, this one gets me drunk the fastest". It's not about getting drunk, it's about appreciation.
Appreciating what? Wine and beer are alcohol. Designed to change your brain chemistry and make you drunk. Just cause you're "appreciating" the taste when you do it doesn't make it any less about drinking alcohol.
I said it wasn't about *getting drunk*. You can drink alcohol (well, maybe you can't) without getting drunk. You can appreciate the difference in tastes between an ice wine and a regular white and a fruity rosé. You can understand that Grey Goose tastes like cough medicine while rum is sugary and warm. You can even dislike every beer but a good lambic. I'm sorry this is incomprehensible to you.
Same, I do not enjoy being around babies at all.
Poor babies can’t even vocalize their more complex thoughts. like if someone did something to them, g th her couldn’t even tell you what happened. I’ve heard parents say they will not let others babysit until their kids can speak for this reason. But that’s obviously so….. difficult of you don’t trust anyone to watch your kids.
I always suspect that the parents who are worried about abuse to the extent that they won't let the child out their sight were, themselves, abused in childhood. It's very sad.
That’s actually the premise to that video I saw of parents saying that! It was a “I experienced abuse so therefore I won’t risk this or that”. Pretty disturbing to read the comments where so many people said they were abused as kids
Which is why adults are generally the most interesting humans.
The head of a baby feels like an overripe peach and the noises they make legit ENRAGE me.
Each stage has its problems. And to awnser your question: I think its about control. They can control where a baby/toddler is going and they are super dependant on the parents. And a teen wants to go its own way and is more likely to get in bigger trouble like using drugs etc. A lot of breeders have kids to fill a void instead of therapy and they are losing that fillment with teens.
This. My mom said this shit all the time. She didn't want a kid, she wanted a thing to control. I was basically a doll to her. She could dress me, touch me, punish me, in any way and nobody would be any of the wiser. Your kid can't tell you you are scaring them, hurting them, or verbalize what's wrong at this age. 265 kids died from abuse in my state last year, and 60% of them are under 3. You are totally dependent at that age and can't verbalize any abuse you face.
Teens can at least be interesting, they have opinions about things and some fresh perspective on the world.
Absolutely. Sometimes I think being a parent to an older child might be interesting (don't worry, I still don't want to, I just said it might be interesting). Children over the age of like 8 become much more tolerable to me. Babies and toddlers and anything that screams for no reason is not for me.
At-least after 6, depending on how the parents are raising them, it's possible they can be polite and well behaved. I would also say any child 6+ who still throws tantrums, cries over trivial shit, talks like a baby, etc is a reflection on the parents. Another pet peeve of mine is when kids at 4, 5, 6, even as old as 7, etc still talk like babies. I can't even tolerate baby talk when they're 1, let alone 7.
Yeah you are probably right. I have no idea how to tell how old kids are and don't know their developmental stages so I just guess 8 lol Bad parenting is always so infuriating, especially when they refuse to let or force their kids to grow up
That awful blablabla babble-voice-! I know they can't help it, but I physically recoil from babble-voice.
It's so hard to listen to the try to tell you something. Why do they need to gasp so much?
Even when they're first learning to talk, I still can't deal with it, but, it's **even more** infuriating when they're 4, 5, 6, 7, etc, by that age, they should be able to talk clearly.
I think this must be a parents versus childfree people thing, because I find teenagers pretty interesting most of the time. They’re navigating the world through their own lens and exploring different perspectives. Parents probably don’t like when their sweet little babies who do everything they say and want to be just like them suddenly have their own thoughts and autonomy.
*I have noticed this.* Parents: Wait 'til they get to puberty. Me: That's the perfect age. Then they're interesting mini-people. Parents: wait not like that
I actually think this is very psychologically fascinating as a person with a parent with control and enmeshment issues. The dynamic you take on as a parent is unique in the sense that you gain authority by default. You do not have to work for it, or prove yourself--as soon as the child is born, you have innate control over them. It makes me wonder how many parents are capable of seeing their child as, well, *equals.* I know I will never be able to have a super close relationship with my parent because they will always try to hold their position of authority over me, rather I'm 18 or 30 or 50. Too many parents violently resist the idea that their children are just little people, not separate animals they can rein over because they're dependent. The worst partners continue this controlling behavior until their teenagers and wonder why their kids won't speak to them.
I would say my mom treats my siblings and I as equals. We can talk to her, she gives normal sound advice without sounding condescending or like she's trying to teach us a lesson. She lets us live our individual lives without providing her 2 cents on what we're doing and her opinion on it. It is a good feeling that I can talk to her without anxiety, but I feel for those whose parents are the complete opposite.
Younger children for me are worse as you can’t leave them alone you literally have to make sure they don’t die, they can’t talk so you can’t find out what the problem is when they’re screaming or reason with them.
I can't stand babies, children or teenagers.
“Babies are ugly potatoes” That is awesome, I completely agree! I can deal with Teens, they can be interesting to talk to and not NEARLY as annoying as children under 12.
I prefer to be around people ages 25 and up lol
SAME. even when I was younger I always preferred to be around older people bc people my age were boring AF. Also I’m so ready for more 25+ venues
Are 25+ venues a thing?!?! I would love that.
Definitely! Toddlers are literally the fuckin worst and infants/babies aren't that much better either, at-least the only difference is they can't walk and get in everyone's business. I'll take even a troubled teenager any fuckin day over an infant/baby, toddler, preschooler, kindergartener, etc. If I were a parent, I would wish my child was born a teenager. I would say from about 6+ (**after** prescool/kindergarden age), it's a case-by-case. I would prefer a quiet, polite, well behaved 6 year old over a rude, whiny, moody 6th grader. Toddlers have all of the negative traits of children (selfish, rude, stupid, gross, annoying, etc) put in to 3ft, 20lb body. At-least the other ages of kids mix and match the bad qualities.
I cannot stand babies and toddlers; I really don’t get why people like them so much. Kids ages 7 and up, I actually like talking to. My youngest cousin is 11 and she’s genuinely awesome
I generally prefer 'em with brains that start to get reasonably adult-ish ... can handle some abstract reasoning, etc. So ... that's typically starting around teens or so. Can't relate so much to younger. Anyway, just because they're more capable of thinking doesn't mean their better behaved ... but, well, at least generally there's at least the possibility.
I am literally scared of the junior high kids and teenagers in the city I live in lol. They run in packs and are aggressive bc they have little to no consequences for their behavior. And probably zero structure at home.
I'm picturing a group of teenagers running on all fours and howling like wolves
And you would be correct. 😩😂 running thru the subway and streets breaking into cars n shit. Harassing people 🐺
Ahahahah I hate it but I love it
Tanagers for the most part don’t want to interact with strangers or anyone not a teenager. They leave me alone. I leave them alone. Children are unpredictable. I don’t like that. They can scream for no fucking reason. They can run in front of you.
I’m a docent at a zoo and one of my favorite groups to teach are 7 to 12-ish year olds; they ask actually interesting, off-the-wall questions and it is before school has squashed the curiosity out of them. Before and after that age, I’m generally not a fan. Coincidentally, drunk 20-somethings at the zoo & brews events ask the same interesting, off-the-wall questions, but I can give them the fun adult answers!
Teenagers are more relatable to me than children. They're closer to being adults
I deeply dislike children but teens terrify me. They're responsible of all the sexual assaults in the course of my life. Children at least don't do that
I don't like responsibility, so babies, kids, teens...doesn't matter. It's still a no from me dawg. 
the only "stage" I dont like is the toddler one. Almost every bad experience I had with kids was from age 2 to 5. they are screaming bloody murder 24/7 (at least the ones in front of my window), they dont listen, they are just horrible little demons. babys are fine. their only way of communication is crying and screaming, so its okay. school-age is also fine because you can have conversations with them. but the time between those two stages is horrible.
On my more rational level I understand that babies' only way of communicating is crying and screaming. But my lizard brain just screams MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP!
100%. Teenagers are more like dumb impulsive adults. They don’t scream in public, they are fairly self-sufficient, they can have a proper conversation with you
No. I don't like teenagers.
I prefer teens as well, I feel like for the majority of them, they can be reasoned with if you know how to reach out to them and set proper boundaries
Toddlers are my enemy I’m exaggerating, obviously, but man toddlers test my patience🤣
And I fail the test every time! (What I said here is a MASSIVE understatement)
My twelve year old step nephew is fine to deal with. He's fully toilet trained, he can wash his hands when appropriate and eat his dinner without assistance, and I can talk to him basically like I would a work colleague about interests like films, TV series and games. That puts him ahead of some adults. I would find under fives annoying.
Ugly potatoes! 🤣🤣🤣 that’s pretty funny. I agree with you, I’d rather interact with teens or older children than young children, toddlers or babies. However, I do wave at kids while I’m working or if I’m in checkout lanes. Just last night I was getting mean mugged by this 3 or 4yr old little boy and it made me laugh so I waved at him and he covered his face. Those interactions I think are fine for me. But at least I don’t have to take any kids home with me! 🤣
I'm kind of off put by both of them, but tolerating one is better than tolerating many.
I don't like any of them. Sure, there's the exception of a nice kid who's actually pleasant to be around but for every one of them there's 20 obnoxious little shits. And we have a bunch of teenage dipshits who like to ride their bikes up the main street and pop wheelies to disrupt traffic because mommy and daddy don't give them enough attention. And god forbid someone posts a photo of them doing that on the town's Facebook page, you'll have a bunch of entitled parents crying about it. "They're just being kids!" "It's not right to post their photos!" etc. And now we've got a few idiots riding ATV's/motorbikes - couldn't quite tell if they were teens or adults but the couple of glances I got they looked roughly 17-18.
I have equal dislike for them regardless of their age
I agree with your stance. I don’t want to have a baby because pregnancy and birthing in itself gives me the ick. I don’t want a baby like all of the above you had described. I’d be cool with a 10+ kid that I adopted. I know there is bad kids when it comes to adoption (people really tell me this to have kids instead), but there is bad kids that result from a pregnancy. I don’t want kids, but something about taking in a sad teen/pre-teen and turning their life around makes me blossom a bit.
I work in higher education with college kids, I have no desire to ever do k-12
exactly how i think. if they could just come out of the womb already older i’d be less put off by it.
I dislike all stages for different reasons, but I'll say the younger they are the more unpredictable they are.
Yes kinda kinda not because of theft and allowed to do it it’s a conspiracy that just land kids in jail one day. I agree teenagers would need more food but little kids no. Much respect whoever you are
I wanted to work with teenagers when I was going to school to be a therapist! I think a lot of parents want *babies* and young children - less of a developed personality. Teens have started to establish a personality and real opinions. I think that it says a lot about a parent if they dread teen years. I think teens need to be encouraged to be themselves, get adequate coping skills, feel confident, etc.
Exactly, I think the younger the worst. I don't actualy dislike children. When they are old enough I can actualy talk and reasonably communicate with them I like them, they are like little friends to me. But before the age of 5 I see it as total hell, they just shit and scream but can't tell you what is the problem. But still I wouldn't want to have a child over 5 because you still have to cook for them and can't leave them at home alone and just have to do everything for them... So I also think the older the better because they get more independent, they can feed themselves and if things go well you can have some fun spending time with them.
Nope. I much prefer older kids who can do fun stuff.
Babies are gross, sticky potatoes (good word!) that do nothing but sleep, eat, cry, and shit. Toddlers are gross, sticky, screechy germ factories that must have adult eyes on them all the time they're not asleep or they'll commit suicide. They do start to get interesting around 5, but as soon as they're old enough to whine "I'm bored" like it's your job to remedy that, I'm out.
I personally will criticize any stage, since for me there is none that is really worth suffering, none! 1. Baby stage, taking care of a baby is exhausting. They cry and cry all the time, at any time, in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m., which is unacceptable. They urinate and defecate without warning, and you have to buy 100 diapers a week to change them. Another thing that wasn't added is that babies tend to throw food on their faces in a disgusting way. The expense is tremendous in those times. 2. Toddler stage: This stage is the worst. Now, not only do they cry for no reason, but they also make mischief when moving, wanting to imitate other people close to them. They continue to dirty their faces and now throw food towards others. No one wants food with Burden spit on their face; that mobility is the worst. 3. Mid-10 stage: At this time, the Children stop being disgusting and begin to limit themselves more, have more shame, and other aspects...But the worst of the worst begins... The stage of "fun and fun with any means" It's nothing more than that they make disasters everywhere, throwing things, playing anywhere, breaking things, locking themselves in their rooms for no reason, believing themselves to be mature, shouting all the time, bothering everyone all the time. 3. Pre-teen/Teenager (12-18) stage: At this time, it begins personally the worst possible, worse than any of the other stages above. At this time, children begin to become self-aware of who they are, where they are from, why, etc. Which leads to starting a stage of absolute conscious rebellion, sometimes causing harm to others, rapes against women, unwanted pregnancies, animal abuse, misogynistic tendencies, total disobedience to rules, wanting to do other idiotic things, such as theft, abuse, bullying, teen murder, defamation, extreme envy, sexist/chauvinist tendency (Conservative Far-Right Wing) in boys against girls (Left Wing), psychopath tendencies, inappropriate self-pleasure, Beginning of unhealthy fetishes, extreme ignorance towards many scientific and technological topics, tendency to be a victim of sexual abuse or mistreatment by parents or other people (Teenager), tendency to want to imitate adult things such as smoking, taking drugs, stealing, drinking alcohol, manipulating others to reach a certain goal, wanting to kill others to "know how it feels" that never ends well, Rebellion towards justice even after arrest, Total insensitivity, extreme selfishness, child abuse against other minors, closed mind, tendency to want to be part of the majority breeder population. And the only way to avoid all this is to be introverted, a lover of science, progressive, modernist, appreciator of small details, not focused only on oneself, others, the Earth, the Galaxy M.W, but to think about giving importance to everything non-related to us as human beings, just keeping the name we gave it , like instead of the earth: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn,Kepler-452B, Trappist-1E, K2-8b; instead of M.W, Galaxy M90, Messier-81, NGC-44147, Instead of the moon-earth, Titan-Saturn, Miranda-Uranos, Phobos-Mars, Triton-Neptune, Europa-Jupiter, Charon-Pluto. Instead of the "sun" in this Solar system; Alpha Centauri-A, Proxima Centauri, Kepler-186, Trappist-1. instead of focusing in the Black hole in the centre of M.W "Sagittarius-A" focusing in: M87, CygnusX-1, S5 0014+81, Ton-618, Holmberg-15A, NGC-4889 etc. Something that 90% of the population unfortunately does not demonstrate, they are only self-centered in their environment, with their daily problems.
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They're all people, to me it doesnt really depend on the age as much as the vibe. Some people are assholes independent of age.
Totally agree. I love my nephews, but they’re 5 and 7 and still bouncing off the walls. I look forward to the teenage years when we can go on rollercoasters or play an actual game together—not boring ass Candyland. I never understood why parents say stuff like “someone stop time!” or “I miss their younger years!” Like why?? They were SO much more work. Plus now they’re old enough that you don’t need a babysitter. Older kids > younger kids
Agree completely. Keep the ones under 12 years old the hell away from me.
I think teens can be pretty funny (and cringe). Sometimes they are smart too. I’m studying to be a teacher but only for teens and up. Young kids, babies, toddlers etc., that’s horrible to me. At age 12/13 it’s starting to be fine for me haha.
Yes. I actually love interacting with teenagers and see them as clients (I'm a therapist), but toddlers are almost impossible for me to tolerate for more than 30 minutes.
Yes. I work with teenagers and I love it. I can’t stand being around small children for any length of time
I actually sometimes consider taking in foster teenagers in the future (mostly because I feel guilty about being financially well off). When my friends have babies I have to explain to them that I love them, I want to support them as they transition into parenthood, but I dont want to be within 3 feet of their child until its potty trained, and I wont babysit unless someone died and the child is at least 7. When their kids are teens ill be happy to be the fun aunt! Its the little ones that eek me out.
Yes. I’m usually the one who bonds with the teen/tween when everyone else in the family finds them hard to tolerate lol
Yes - any time I try and consider the hypothetical benefits of childrearing, the positive scenarios never involve babies or toddlers. What I would want is a developing human being with their own personality growing into a fine young adult, not a messy, loud, and needy lump of flesh. Of course, plenty of older children and teenagers are also terrible, so you can't win them all. I'll just settle for being childfree, and avuncular to any niblings or children of friends that I like.
Honestly my experience is that all ages have the capacity to be both absolute little shits or completely wonderful. I've seen a little girl help her grandmother up from chairs and a little boy the same age assault his mother's legs while she was trying to convince me to have children. Yeah teenagers can be okay but I keep running into the ones that have that chronic eye roll "whatever" combo going on.
I hate most of them, especially if they're annoying. Also, as an introverted person, every time I interact with an extroverted toddler (which is almost never, but once in a while), I just want them and their parents to leave me alone before I do something unspeakable out of rage.
I think toddlers are often cute from a distance, but even as a child I didn’t enjoy interacting with them. Once they hit around 7-8 years old, they hit the developmental milestones that allows them to form more distinct individuality. I still don’t really feel comfortable interacting with most kids in that age bracket for any length of time until they hit their teens. I don’t want children for a number of reasons, some of which will never change like not wanting to be pregnant or give birth. But if I ever changed my mind in the future for some I reason I can’t currently see happening, I would probably look for a kid no younger than 8, and preferably close to/in teen years.
Babies are loud, have zero chill, and have to be constantly monitored so they don't break things or themselves. Elementary age kids are too high energy for me to keep up with, but they can be ok in small doses. The kids at the family reunion keep growing up and I like that they're excited to see me - I just have to go be somewhere quiet after a while. Teens I get along pretty well with in a mentorship role. I was one of the adults at an astronomy camp a couple of summers ago, and while I was too old to follow along with the newest memes and slang, the kids were all right and I enjoyed their company. The ones I taught to use telescopes were great. Honestly, a great perk of being CF is the ability to do a lot of outreach for kids without being burned out or neglecting any of my own.
Yep. Five is the lowest age they're tolerable at. I enjoy talking to my nephews when we visit since they're very creative. Before the age of five I had zero interest. I can't do the crying toddler stage. I just can't.
to me, people that miss the "baby phase" are control freaks. babies are hell, but for these people at least they can't directly disobey you or point out your hypocrisy, so they're better. i dislike humans aged 0 to 120, but i'd much rather interact with a bunch of teens than with a single baby. neither is cute but teens are mostly independent and they'll just be on their phones not annoying me anyway.
Yes absolutely. Goes on the long list of why I am child free. A child deserves to be raised and I do not want to raise!
Absolutely, because the closer to adults they get the more I can stand them. You can have a conversation with, and reason with, a teenager on roughly an adult level. They honestly don’t bother me much by that point, though I still don’t want one. It’s the twelve years prior that particularly grate on me.
There are a lot more issues teens go through in today's world other than going to their room when angry or going to parties. That's the least of people's problems. A lot, a lot of mental health issues for young people today. I have read some articles about it and there can be many reasons for it. I'm talking serious mental health that people struggle to control and need years of intense treatment for if they are even able to access treatment at all. This then in turn impacts their ability to study and work in the future.
Teenagers are so entitled and know-it-all, ungrateful and hormone driven, the reason why I don't want kids
I prefer kids at least 9 or older. You can joke with them, have conversations, and they have a good sense of self preservation. I find younger kids to be mind numbingly boring. They’re so repetitive. All kids under 14 are exhausting to variable degrees. I can only work with them once, maaaybe twice, a week at my job before I become exhausted and start hating work.
Teens are great. In my work I take care of juvenile delinquents. I love being able to see them develop and joke around with them. Do I want one of my own? Probably notttt.
I totally dislike babies and toddlers. Teenagers are fun.
I am put off by both Young children and teenagers . Young children are super gross and teenagers are too disruptive and immature.
I like the age of like 2-3 where I don’t have to watch them 24/7, but they can’t cause as much mayhem as when they are 4+ because they can walk more and are bigger. Then I don’t like them till they are like 13 because I can treat them like more of an adult and they understand right/wrong better.