Tuesday, August 21, 2007

"But You Were a Kid Once!"

Today, I have to address what must be the most ridiculous argument from people as to why I am misguided for disliking children:

"But YOU were a kid once!"

True, true. But I'm not now, so why does that mean I have to like kids as an adult?

I must now share a fact I am not proud of, in order to illustrate this point. I used to be a smoker, a very heavy smoker in fact. I was one for 11 years, from age 14 to age 25. I finally quit in April 2006.

As an ex-smoker, I cannot stand smokers. I'm just as bothered by them as anyone who's never smoked, if not more so. I walk around them on the streets to avoid the cigarette smoke, holding my breath as I do. I don't blame them for their behavior, because I understand what their addiction feels like, and I know how hard it was to stop. But just because I was one once doesn't mean I enjoy being around them now.

Same thing with kids. I was one once; I can't help that -- none of us can. But I am an adult now, and not every adult enjoys being around children. Period.

2 comments:

Feh23 said...

I was a suicidally depressed alcoholic once, I don't feel like reliving that part of my life, nor do I feel like everyone should have that experience...life changing as it was.

Melinda said...

It just goes to show that breeders will throw out the worst excuses/analogies to try to show us the "error of the ways." My personal favorite is, "Well, what if your parents hadn't had children?!" Then, I wouldn't be around to care or worry about it, and they would be enjoying the decision that they made. Plain and simple.