On being a second-class citizen
I am crabby today, or I’d never go to this topic. Because there’s no winning or losing in the great parenthood debate.
But once again while listening to the news this morning, I was reminded that as a person without children,* I don’t matter.
It was the story about the standoff in Alabama ending, and the rescuer saying that as parents, they were really caught up in this situation involving a 5-year-old boy.
You know what? Even some non-parents got caught up in the situation. Even though of us selfish/lazy/useless enough to not have kids can have the emotional well-being to care about children WHO ARE NOT RELATED TO US BY BLOOD.
i have seven of the most amazing nieces and nephews you will ever meet. I’m not a parent. But I rejoice in their triumphs and ache with second-hand pain at their heartbreaks, almost as if I WAS, you know, a parent.
There are many reasons why I don’t have children, and I’m not going to share any of them except to say, yes, at one time I thought I had all the time in the world to make it happen. That it didn’t happen wasn’t due to carelessness on my part but circumstances within and outside my control.
But I haven’t closed myself off from kids. Last month I made my first ever trip to Chuck E. Cheese at the ripe old age of, well, never you mind.I spent two hours last night playing with Legos and watching a movie with kids not related to me.
I was at a motivational speech recently where the speaker said studies show that a successful child has a mentor relationship with three adults other than their parents. Forgive the ego, but I think I’ve provided that to one or two kids in my life.
That’s it. Rant’s over. You might still want to tread carefully around me tomorrow, however.
* I am choosing deliberately to make this genderless. From my point of view, however, the expressed/silent disdain for non-mothers is greater than for non-fathers.
