Comment by Trasmatta 3 days ago
Sometimes I feel grief about the fact that I will almost certainly never have kids, but then I also feel immense relief that I don't have to navigate the extremely complex challenge of raising them in the modern world.
Here's something I accepted. I will mess up, but I'll focus on being a good person that leads by example. The rest is details. I don't know what your situation is, and I'm sorry if you are unable, but I would wish more people get to experience the absolute joy of parenting. It is an exercise of being selfless to the point that you are happy doing things that seem miserable to others for the only reason that there's someone else that benefits from that sacrifice. It's life changing in a great way.
P.S. usual caveats that it's ok if not every person has kids, There's lots of narcisists, etc. that probably shouldnt. However, I feel that in my circles (professional, well adjusted, big city people), the bias is against kids. That is a massive mistake.
If I’m able to put my 2ct in as well, have (at least) two, fairly close together. You’ll have arguments to mediate but there will always be someone to play with around. Friends are not the same unless they literally live in the same house.
Having someone with the exact same life schedule is critical.
once moral panic is subtracted out, it's not actually that complex.
No one participating in a moral panic thinks it is a moral panic. They all think they are addressing a real pressing issue. That is why moral panics work.
The easiest key is the focus. Am I worried about my kid? Not a moral panic, that is literally my job as a parent.
Am I worried about society in general because of all the shoddy parenting about screen time? (Or risky play, or being home alone, or riding public transportation, etc) Then it might be a moral panic.
Along those same lines: am I worried about what all those worriers will say about me?
This is what the above comment is referring to. A lot of the stress of parenting is amped up by other adults (parents or not) who have lots of opinions about whether you’re doing everything right. Much of this is some combination of moral panic and/or self-righteous busybodies. If you can learn to tune a lot of that out, parenting is less stressful and less complex.
I’m telling you that a lot of people believe they are on one of various missions to Save The Children, by which they justify harassing parents about random moments they observe.
Social media within Wikipedia's Media Panic article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_panic#Social_networking_...
As a parent, I think it's just taking choices. There is no absolute win for either end, just gives and takes. When the dust falls we can just hope that we get a bit more takes than gives. Most of us just walk on ice and skate to wherever fate takes us.