40 Reasons Not to Have Kids
I stumbled on a 2007 book written by French author Corinne Maier called “40 Reasons for Not Having Children.” Everyone was blogging about it two years ago, but as someone who didn’t even start listening to Nirvana until Cobain was dead and buried, it’s not surprising that I was slow to the draw on this one.
Her chapter titles range from “The child is a kind of vicious dwarf, of an innate cruelty” to “Families: They are horror and cruelty.”
Have I mentioned that she *has* kids?
From the article:
“For the record, she has given copies of her book to both her children. Neither has picked it up, or paid it any attention. ‘All they want to do is read Harry Potter,’ she sighs.”
Other reasons she recommends not having children include:
- Childbirth is torture.
- It is conformist.
- They will destroy your time and your freedom.
So does Tumblr, btw.
To read all 40 reasons, click here.
Harsh as it sounds, it is important for women (and men) to understand the realities of parenting going in. When anything is romanticized – marriage, children, travel – there is bound to be disappointment. (As b-schoolers say, happiness is reality divided by expectation.) By being so balls out in her book, Maier might have inspired mothers to talk more openly about the bad as well as the good.
