People who don't want kids, why?

I was born and raised in a bad part of town and grew up in "poverty" (by American standards). Single-parent trying to raise 2 kids. A lot of my classmates and other kids in my neighborhood were in similar situations.

From my perspective, I knew it was incredibly difficult for my mother and even when I was 5 years old, I remember thinking that children shouldn't be brought into this world unless their parents can take care of them. People should only have as many kids as they can realistically afford. Money is a factor, yes, but also time. My mother was never present. She worked 2 jobs to take care me of my brother. As a result, I could sense a deep-seated resentment she had toward us, and toward life in general. Like life took a giant shit on her plans by putting her in that situation

Even then, my mom was one of the few who actually pulled it off. My brother and I both went to college and became productive members of society.

I worked briefly in the school district and saw a lot of families and kids who were growing up like me. Most of them were no where nearly as well cared for. Most of those mothers and fathers simply didn't seem to care or understand. It's like they just had some kids and decided to let the school and the rest of society take care of them.

I honestly feel that 50% of all the people who have kids, really shouldn't be having those kids. They just don't take care of them. They don't teach them right-from-wrong, or attend their activities, help them do their homework, take them to the beach or anything.

I also worked in the wealthier school districts and saw the same exact thing. Negligent parenting. It's like these parents had these kids because it meant being part of bettering society, but then they put no effort in actually raising the kid. Spoiled children with no moral compass.

I'm childless because I feel that I wouldn't have the time or the money to commit to raising a child who would succeed and contribute to society. Sure, I could be one of those millions of negligent parents and just knock-up a woman, have a kid, post pictures of my kid on Facebook so everyone knows I've done "well," then never attend their karate practice, help him with his homework, and just let the school do it all for me and put an Xbox infront of him so he doesn't bug me when we're at home.

That's not the right thing to do and a potential child of mine would deserve to have better. Better not to have the child then to bring it into this world and neglect him.

/r/AskReddit Thread