Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Cavalock and The Child Free Hypothesis


Yessssss, so finally I have been validated! I always knew this was true, been telling folks but not everyone agreed with me. So there! All Joy and No Fun: Why parents hate parenting.

A very well-written article by New York Magazine. Countless studies have shown that having kids are making more people unhappy and it's just sad that most people refuse to believe this. I don't wanna slip into an incoherent rant here so I'll just pick some quotes from the story.

'Most people assume that having children will make them happier. Yet a wide variety of academic research shows that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases are less so. This finding is surprisingly consistent, showing up across a range of disciplines.'

'Healthy relationships definitely make people happier. But children adversely affect relationships.'

'Lori Leibovich, the executive editor of Babble and the anthology Maybe Baby, a collection of 28 essays by writers debating whether to have children, says she was particularly struck by the female contributors who’d made the deliberate choice to remain childless. It enabled them to travel or live abroad for their work; to take physical risks; to, in the case of a novelist, inhabit her fictional characters without being pulled away by the demands of a real one. “There was a richness and texture to their work lives that was so, so enviable,” she says.'

'Before urbanization, children were viewed as economic assets to their parents. If you had a farm, they toiled alongside you to maintain its upkeep; if you had a family business, the kids helped mind the store. But all of this dramatically changed with the moral and technological revolutions of modernity.'

Now before you think I'm just taking the quotes to support myself, read the article, it's all there. And we know there's no country with a crazier rat race for parents and kids than this country!

Alright, some food bits now. Did managed to drop by Nando's again when it wasn't that crowded. Half a chicken is just nice for me. Not exactly a place I would keep going but for roasted or grilled chicken, it's way better than Kenny Roger's.


Had breakfast on Saturday morning at Coffee Bean and they have this one-for-one offer that I thought was a steal. Two breakfasts for the price of one. Thought it was only on weekdays but the (almost deserted) outlet at Orchard Central still had it last Saturday.


A little geeking out over the weekend too. Bought almost S$60 worth of Call of Cthulhu products. Best part was finding out the iPhone auto spellchecks the word 'Cthulhu', how cool is that?

2 comments:

red fir said...

Having children is nature's way of propagation I guess. Why are so interested in this topic? haha.

Haven't tried Nando's.

Cavalock said...

Well, just don't really like that the media is always saying how wonderful it is to hv kids and not give a balanced view (pros n cons) of the topic.