Kids...

From Lileks, The Bleat today.

So I don’t judge people who don’t want kids, but I can’t stand “breeder” and “clones” and “crotchfruit” and all the other terms of derision. It’s the worst form of misanthropy, and a curious protestation of ignorance: these people literally do not know what they’re talking about, since there’s nothing about parenthood you can observe from a distance that compares to the thing itself. Being irritated with poorly-socialized children in a restaurant does not set one up in a moral high chair. Believe me, parents are just as irritated with those people as you are.

Maybe most are as irritated, not me--at least not as much as before we had children. I make no claim here to be a better person than James (or anyone else). My reasons for not being irritated are mostly related to my own personal failings.

--It is an opportunity to feel superior: Our kids probably were just as bad, but I don't remember it that way now. Now it just seems like they were always pretty good in public.

--Remembering how embarrassing it was to have children behaving badly in public makes me feel for the parents. Mostly I feel, Wow! it is so much better to see the hate-rays aimed at someone else in the plane, restaurant etc.

--Lastly, I am just used to whining, screeching kids and it really doesn't bother like it once could. Had the disease, immune for life--or at least for a while. I have noticed that grandparents (on both sides) seem to have forgotten anything they ever knew about kids--so the immunity is long but not for life.