I agree with Freespirit. Hearing viewpoints that are different from our own helps all of us to learn and grow. Hearing nothing but reinforcement of our own viewpoint causes us to stagnate and forget why we've made the decisions we have.
The few parents that regularly post here seem to be very supportive. I think the fact that they come here regularly shows they're open-minded and that they want to encourage society in general to be open-minded about the childfree.
On a side note, I am getting rather tired of the hostility and personal attacks I'm hearing here. I'm not going to point fingers because there is more than one person contributing to it; one cannot bicker with oneself. And I'm not going to try to place blame, because in any argument, it matters not who started it but rather, who continues the argument. It is disappointing that there are people posting here who are willing to provoke hostility in one another rather than trying to dispel it.
No one should be asking people why they're posting here or making them feel unwelcome. We don't own this board. If the board moderator wants to allow parents to post, that's her call, and we should trust her judgment. If anyone would rather have a message board or community where parents are not allowed at all, there are plenty out there (especially livejournal communities).
If someone does have a problem with another poster, they should try to resolve it peacefully through Bellaonline's private message option. Or, we should all just try to ignore hostility and get on with the topics we're really trying to talk about. However, no one should be bringing all that drama to the message boards -- this is a totally inappropriate place for it.
I didn't come here to listen to bickering. As a matter of fact, I am childfree to AVOID drama and stress such as this.
Let's all just try to get along. As I said before, give peace a chance! I'm not saying you have to censor yourself. I'm just saying that personal attacks are inappropriate for this board and make many readers (myself included) very very uncomfortable. If you have a problem, say the problem is with breeders in general or mean people in general or immature people in general. Don't ask a specific person why she is here or why she is hostile; that is rude and some of us just don't want to hear about it.
Now, let's all get back to talking about REAL childfree issues and leave the drama behind us! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
