BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Must Recommend this!!

A daring French lady, Corinne Maier, wrote a book titled, "No Kid: 40 Reasons Not to Have Children". She's becoming my idol. She is so so so cool. I haven't even read her book yet, but am positively falling in love with her. Just read these 2 interviews with her, I'm sure you'll understand :

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oh, ok. so this book has been written about on this forum before.
heh-heh ... oops.
but I just really admire Ms. Maier, so ... for those of you who haven't read those 2 interviews, please take a look. She's amazing!

Thanks for the articles, kitty - I had seen the second before but the Daily Mail one was new to me. Unfortunately I hated the second part of the article (the response from a happy mother) as much as I enjoyed Mme Maier's own thoughts. As for the "10 reasons why you should [have children]", they really scraped the bottom of the barrel. Judge for yourselves:

1. Having a baby introduces you to the joys of elasticated waists and big pants. (Er, I'll pass, thanks all the same.)

2. Mums who have a girl, can indulge their inner princess and dress her up in fairy wings and tutus. (What inner princess?)

3. When you have a baby, you can fall in love all over again, without being unfaithful or needing to shave your legs. (What selfless motivation.)

4. No matter how rough you look, your children always think you are beautiful (at least until they are teenagers). (My partner provides all the compliments I need; I am not narcissistic enough to have to create people to admire my looks. Besides, the proviso says it all.)

5. Toy shops are no longer off-limits, but stopping your husband from buying Scalextric for your week-old baby can still pose a problem. (I had no idea that access to toy shops was denied to anyone not in possession of a baby. If I want a toy, I'll buy it - I don't need a baby as an excuse to do so.)

6. You can admit the perfect date is on your sofa with a tub of ice-cream, now that the cost of babysitting has put paid to a wild social life. (Sounds like making a virtue out of necessity. I'd rather have a choice, even if I do choose the sofa and ice-cream option.)

7. Pregnancy is guilt-free excuse to gorge on chocolate. (If I want chocolate, I will eat it - without the need to create an excuse in the form of a mini-parasite.)

8. Cooking for children reacquaints you with fish fingers and peas, which just never make it onto the table at grown-up dinner parties. (Because only parents are legally allowed to cook such foods, or eat anywhere except at "grown-up dinner parties".)

9. Even if they put a stop to a wild sex life, you will never be short of a kiss or cuddle with children around. (Er, not exactly the same thing, is it? And how long does the cuddly phase last?)

10. You have the chance to put right everything your parents did wrong - and in the process give your children plenty of fodder to work on with their own offspring. (No, you cannot undo your parents' mistake - you can merely try to avoid inflicting their mistakes on your own children. As for the fodder argument, it seems better suited in the "10 reasons not to have children" than here.)

Overall, I got the impression that whoever came up with this list (which, I realise, probably isn't meant to be taken completely seriously) lives a life bound by conventions and worry about what is and isn't acceptable. Why else would they need a baby in order to buy toys, or eat what they want?

Manatee, I could hug you! Your counter-reasons for that happy mom are fabulous!!!
I was slightly annoyed to see this mother's views coming right after that of Maier, but then, I thought, hey, Maier's views were on TOP, what does that mean, I wonder? heh-heh ...

Thanks, Kitty. I think having a happy mother respond to Maier's arguments is meant to achieve a balanced article, or something. Wouldn't want too many readers taking away the wrong impression! This way it ends on the saccharine note of parenthood.

I'm now working my way through the comments. So far it's the usual predictable mass of "I can't imagine life without (my) kids" with a few opposing views thrown in by the childfree as well as parents. One reader made the very good point that having a mother of toddlers provide the alternative view was flawed, since Corinne Maier's children are in a very different age bracket. Perhaps it's easier to gush when you have yet to deal with the potential horror of the (pre)teenage years.

I just loved the Daily Mail interview - thanks for posting the link. Like Manatee, I found the second part frustrating - so full of all the old cliches!

But back to the first part - she's sharp! My favourite quotes:

"They are just walking problems to which you constantly have to find solutions."

"Instead, your weekends revolve around being woken at the crack of dawn to traipse around the zoo or watch minimum wage actors cavort in cartoon costumes at Disneyland; sitting through stupid kids' films and eating in "child friendly" restaurants. In my opinion this alone is reason enough not to have a child."

"I stayed for years in a job that bored me - as an economist - just so I could get out early to pick my children up."

"Modern parents' hands are tied. While there is pressure to produce perfect children, you no longer have any power to say no to them, so you're more likely to produce perfect brats."

"Certainly, I often wonder why I had children. I think it was because I am an only child I thought I would be less alone if I had a family. Now I've learned that being in a family can bring a new kind of loneliness."

I wonder what her true motivation was in writing this book. I hadn't realised she is a mother! What courage!

Just read one of the reader's comments (below). I hope in his old age this guy's kids are happy to "kiss him on the forehead" and "read to him softly in a dimly lit room" otherwise he's going to be mightily let down!

Haha, Manatee, you crack me up!

Ken had better keep praying. Oh, and putting aside more money for the time when he is in a nursing home, waiting for the once or twice yearly visits from his kids.

Now that sounds like a more realistic plan.

I'm really sick of people who always ASSUME that kids = elderly care. Such idiots.
Besides, don't they ever feel bad about that? That they expect their children to take care of them when they're old? Like they definitely deserve it?!