Nuclear families are intentionally isolating because it makes women and children more vulnerable.
It really does take a village and we need to get back into living with big extended families.
No shit. Raising kids is an act of love and sacrifice.
If you aren’t willing to do this, do NOT have kids!
There’s definitely this strain of “Why would I ever want to sacrifice for anyone else? Who could possibly deserve that much love?” coming off these comic artists and their readership.
It reeks of alienation and despair. Like, that final panel of the comic might as well be of the artist themself. Alone, in a bar, half shaved, rings under the eyes - that’s more than a few people I knew back in college.
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I like this comic because it highlights my consistent experience with arrogant parents acting as though I’m not truly mature or successful because I haven’t procreated.
That’s not what the comic shows at all. It ends with a solitary burned out person pinning for the past.
There is no subtext of alienation or despair in my enjoyment.
Presumably because you’re not the one who wrote the cartoon.
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The first two panels show the female character pretentiously telling an adult male
With the implication that it’s a lie, and the truth is in the fourth panel, yes.
You referred to the comic AND it’s readers
If you’re sympathizing with the artist, you’re buying into this dystopian fantasy of how the artist’s burned out friend “really feels”, yes.
But this is coming from inside the artist’s brain.
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I don’t have kids but I still like to wonder about where planes are going
where planes are going
Another one that’s not corporate, and doesn’t remove planes when someone pays a fee.
Which is less than fun for a private pilot. The fact someone can lookup my full name and home address from my tail number or ADS-B data doesn’t feel good as a privacy advocate. Basically required to beacon all my personal information any time I fly
Thankfully the FAA finally made it easier for individuals to protect their privacy, but it’s still pretty minimal
ADSB exchange is the go-to
Now is my chance to share a useless fun fact! If there is a V-22 Osprey on the map the icon will change from helicopter mode to plane mode depending on airspeed
That is so cool. I just checked and there’s two in plane mode and two in helicopter mode right now.
This is also my preferred flight tracker. It’s important to understand how and why this site is available for free, and where the data come from:
- the FAA and others mandate that pretty much all aircraft broadcast ADS-B info automatically on every flight. ADS-B is an international standard for aircraft data to be broadcast for the purpose of conspicuous ID, locating, and other info about the craft. Only highly sensitive military flights are exempt, for obvious reasons.
- This particular site merely aggregates data from volunteers who have set up stations. These stations are easy enough to set up that there are enough volunteers to provide continuous, overlapping coverage in most places. If you wanted, you could set up a station of your own (requires just a cheap ~$30USD SDR, an antenna, and a laptop/raspberry pi/etc)
And that SDR is a hobby in and of itself. There are all kinds of interesting transmissions you can receive from around the world.
Oh, yeah, that’s a whole rabbit hole that I’ve been on for 5 years and counting, and I still feel like I know nothing :)
Another one that’s not corporate
Isn’t it owned by a company called Jetnet?
Justin Ling. (2023-01-27). “The Flight Tracker That Powered @ElonJet Just Took a Left Turn”. wired.com. Accessed 2025-10-16. “A major independent flight tracking platform, which has made enemies of the Saudi royal family and Elon Musk, has been sold to a subsidiary of a private equity firm. And its users are furious. ¶ ADS-B Exchange has made headlines in recent months for, as AFP put it, irking “billionaires and baddies.” But in a Wednesday morning press release, aviation intelligence firm Jetnet announced it had acquired the scrappy open source operation for an undisclosed sum.”.
To get to the other side!
Of what? The disk?
Of the spacetime chicken
The best birth control is other people’s children.
I used to agree but my hormones tell me otherwise.
Clapping ovaries, eh? That’s the noise that IT’S BABY-MAKING TIIIIIIME!
That’s “klapperende eierstokken” in Dutch, BTW.
I gotta say, it’s been the exact opposite for me.
One couple has kids, and everyone passes around the baby making cooing faces. Six months later, half the block is pregnant.
Add in that there’s this reflexive desire in a big community of like-aged friends/family for our kids to be friends, too. My wife has eight or nine different cousins who are all her age. And we all had kids within a year or two of one another.
Going to go the opposite way. Kids are fucking easy. Don’t listen to these other people. You’re literally built to create them against your better judgement for a reason. “ooooOOOOOoOOOOo I don’t know if I’ll be a good parent” shhhhhh, throw out the condoms. It’ll all work out.
When I was starting high school and going through registration with my mom, we were standing in line behind another kid and his mom that I knew pretty well from middle school.
My mom starts talking to his mom about how she now has one child each in elementary, middle school, and high school this year, and it’s going to be overwhelming.
What my mom didn’t know is that she was talking to the mom of a legendary family of like seven kids. The guy I went to school with was the second youngest of the bunch. In elementary school, one of his older brothers stopped by the class and talked about his time in boot camp. We had middle aged teachers who had gone to school with his older siblings. My mom did not pick her battle well on that one.
Whenever someone tells me about their kids I’m like, I’m happy for you, but have you seen literally anything humanity has done for the last half century?
About to be 43 and more grateful every year that my partner and I are childfree. I like hanging out with my friend’s kids occasionally, they can be funny tiny humans, but I hit a limit quickly and we invariably share a sigh of relief once we’re in the car on our way home.
I’m also grateful that there are folks who love kids and are great, involved parents to them. I’m in awe of my friend’s ability to be the mom she is and I appreciate her efforts to better the collective group of humanity by two. Even more grateful that I was free to make a different choice. It takes all kinds, ya know? And kids benefit from unofficial “aunties”, I think.
Kids’ parents generally benefit from unofficial “aunties” too!
I only sacrificed sleep a bit in the first 3 years until both my kids were sleeping through the night. In no time they are school age, then off to university. The people I often see represented by the women in the comic are those who are married to their jobs, not parents. If you don’t want kids, fine, don’t have them but many parents think their kids are one of the best parts of their lives. Things that are the most worthwhile in your life often take a bit of work or challenge.
I feel like this cartoon was drawn by someone who doesn’t have kids. Or didn’t want them but got them.
Be fulfilled without kids or with them. Don’t be fulfilled by judging those who have chosen different from you.
My interpretation of this comic was that it is making fun of the parts of having a kid that they don’t tell you about, not that it was being judgemental towards anyone.
Sure, it is being hyperbolic, but hyperbole is common feature of humor.
“I had no children. I haven’t transmitted the legacy of our misery to any creature”— Machado de Assis (1881)
I am childfree 33, childfree both by choice and by economic circumstances. I have a intense aversion towards baby’s, doesn’t mean others shouldn’t get them. I used to think that instead of having kids, I could just be the cool uncle that babysits sometime. Turns out I really dislike babys. So, probably should never get my own.
Sometimes I get tempted by the wish, but then I am reminder that I prefer the risk of regretting not having children, then risking regretting having children. And while I do subscribe to the anti-natalist worldview, that only should dictate my actions, not those of other people.
I am very lucky to have a partner who is also childfree by choice.
Naw, kids are great fun
I like kids but I do not want my own.
I think people should be OK with other people making their own choices.
Telling someone to “grow up and have kids” like in the comic is really shitty just like how telling someone they made a mistake by having kids would be.
Idk why the argument is "everyone should have kids or nobody should have kids. "
I feel like the internet has ruined many people’s tolerance for ambiguity or difference.
With a statement like that, there’s no middle ground. Either you’re a unicorn of a parent who can deal with it all or you’re leaving someone else with most of the burden.
… so tell us, precious, which is it?
“skiing is great fun”
With a statement like that, there’s no middle ground. You must be a one in a million natural athlete.
Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it isn’t work and you don’t fall down many many times.
“deal with it all” is the falling on your behind repeatedly and not being discouraged by it. If that requires being a one in a million athlete, sure, that’s what I’m saying.
Things can be fun and difficult. Just ask any athlete. It can be fun but requires work and practice.
People who find difficult things fun are unicorns in my book.
You play video games?
Are we really going to compare video game “difficult” with real life “difficult”?
What absolute nonsense, plenty of people like to challenge themselves.
Maybe I’m just old and neurodivergent but going out and partying sounds like a miserable time to me. I’d take changing diapers and being a human jungle gym for my kid any day.
I’m also old and neurodivergent. Kids sound as much a nightmare as going out and partying.
Being a parent is the best. You wouldn’t understand.
I really wouldn’t, and I also won’t care to.
Then its good you dont have kids. I dont know why this gets turned into a debate so often. If you want kids, have them. If you dont, dont have them.
Damn, people. It aint hard.
That’s what she said… which is why she doesn’t have any kids.
When did I turn into a woman?
No kids
Men can also not have kids
I know. Im not arguing against her. Im using her comment as a case in point.
I didn’t really want kids, but my wife did, so we compromised and had 6.
Jokes aside I found it super fulfilling, I had struggled a lot with depression and feeling like everything was pointless, but raising kids gives me a purpose and makes mudane stuff like work feel meaningful. I definitely get what the comic is talking about, it’s rough a lot of the time, but it was what I unexpectedly needed in my life.
but raising kids gives me a purpose
Ugh, this makes me shudder. It just sounds like “I’ve eagerly embraced my role as part of a procreation machine”.
I guess it’s necessary that some people become parents, in order to keep humanity going. And, it’s better if those people are doing it willingly rather than reluctantly. But, it just sounds like evolution reached into your brain and turned off some critical faculties in order to make you a more effective procreator.
So is the issue here that they find purpose in giving a part of themselves to another? Why police where a person finds purpose, if this so happens to be where it is?
The issue is that their brain appears to have been damaged by becoming a parent.
Why do you denigrate a happy and successful person?
I’m not denigrating them, just the brain damage that becoming a parent has done to them.
6???
Yep, 6. After you have several it’s kinda like “how much harder could it be to have another?”
We had the same thought with our cats and ended up with five. Then we realized that if you’re unlucky it can get really unsustainable really quickly. For example if you have one cat and it develops 3 problems you have 3 problems to deal with. Five cats and each develop 3 problems…yeah you now have 15 problems to keep up with (vet bills, messed to clean up, fights to break up etc etc.).
I can’t imagine juggling six kids. Props to you all for being able to keep up with that.
Yeah there’s always a risk of getting a really hard to handle kid/cat. Some kids are just at easy, but others aren’t. There’s also a risk of suddenly have twins or triplets and ending up extra overwhelmed.
That’s all I needed to hear :D
