What are the cons of NOT having kids?

No one to avenge your death

You have fewer excuses to use to call off of work.

I’m having medical emergencies in my 40s and still need my 70 year old parents to bring and take me to appointments.

It can make you feel isolated from your peers, whether childless by choice or circumstance

Holidays are kinda depressing.

I went to watch my nephews open gifts on Christmas morning then spent the rest of day changing exhaust manifold gaskets, oil change, and a tune up on my truck just because I had nothing going on.

I’m 40, I don’t have kids.

4 years ago I moved to a new place and befriended my neighbour, he has 1 daughter from a previous relationship, his girlfriend has 2 more (also from a previous relationship).

They both used to work shifts, so they needed a babysitter for the two daughters of his gf, the other girl would go to her mom’s place, as she lives really close.

One year ago, they couldn’t find a babysitter for 3 days, and I had to pick up these 2 girls ( 5 and 8 years old at the time), from school, help them with homework, have them shower, make them dinner and then put them to bed.

They already knew me of course as I often hang out with their mother and my neighbour, but I’ve never kept them alone.

I had the best of times. They were a blast. Lovely, kind, would not talk back or

Nowadays they’re 7 and 9(nearly 10). I often go to their place and the youngest gives me the biggest hugs, then just sit on my lap while the oldest just sit next to me, and both will tell me about their day and talk about random stuff. We do lots of activity together and I’m now more like an uncle than just the neighbour. And I love it. I feel loved, I feel appreciated, It just feels… nice.

That feeling there, is what is lost when you don’t have a kid. I think it’s surely the only “pro” of having a kid.

When I want to impress my wife by doing the dishes, I can’t just secretly get the kids to do it for me

My dad’s side of the family is enormous. Each independent family unit has 2-4 kids, so I grew up with great grandparent, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and lots of cousins. My mom’s side of the family is much smaller. Only one aunt and two cousins. My dad’s side was always much more enjoyable on occasions and holidays. Also much more supportive when it came time for family support.

But the real kicker was watching my grandparents grow old. My dad’s parents were constantly surrounded by family with a lot of care and support as they grew old, not to mention, many more people to share the expense. My mom’s parents had almost nobody. As their friends started to pass away, there were even fewer. My mom and her sister both had busy lives and couldn’t spend a ton of time with them. Health, especially mental, deteriorated much more rapidly than the other side.

Anyhoo. That’s one of the major reasons that we had kids. People are joy, so we wanted some people of our own to continue the legacy of joy and support.

Having to pick up the dog shit in the yard myself.

I’m going to put the lonely stuff aside about getting old.

The cons, is you never get to experience life through your child’s eyes.

You don’t get to see their love and excitement that happens when they see you coming home from work.

You don’t get the joy and fulfillment of teaching them, spending time with them and watching them grow.

..

I get these are just short answers, but it’s hard to really describe the fulfillment when your daughter runs up to you shouting “Daddy,daddy,daddy” and then just wants to hang out.

In addition to that, they are fucking hilarious.

At the age now where my friends from high school are shipping their kids off to college and becoming late 30’s empty nesters. Basically regaining all of the perceived benefits of us childless folk, but with a whole adult offspring out in the world. That part seems pretty cool, but still no regrets on my end.

Loneliness. As you age and your friends have kids themselves you will increasingly find that you have no one but your s.o to do things with. It’s especially bad in retirement as long term friends and family start to die off. You could easily find yourself with absolutely no one to talk to.

I would like to think that raising my own children I would be able to teach them kindness and acceptance to help rid the world of the stupidity that we can’t get over. I likely won’t have that chance at least on my own children, but planning to volunteer to maybe help others’ children.

I’d say one con is that I since I don’t have to get up early on the weekends to shuttle kids to games and events, I sometimes sleep in later that I expected. You wake up, and you’ve missed breakfast at McD’s, and have to order from the lunch menu. No hashbrowns for you. It sucks.

Having to listen to all the parents tell you what a joy raising a family is

According to MassimoL there are none. Having kids is a drain on your finances, your personal wellbeing, and ruins the planet.

I had one because I thought we could provide a loving, stable home to raise someone who could be a productive member of the next generation of people. It’s also fun to pass down traditions such as dressing up and trick or treating for Halloween, drinking out of the hose in summer, that the proper way to eat ice cream is with sprinkles. I knew I would miss out on that if I didn’t, it’s sort of intangible and lots of people on here would say it’s not worth it. I don’t expect them to take care of me when I’m old, but I’d be honoured to still be a part of their life when they are an adult.

Your friend pool gets really really small because they all have kids and they can’t do jack s*** anymore

Lack of cheap unreliable labor.

Well, when I die, I die. Potentially, nothing of myself lives on. I’m also the end of my family line. I have half siblings, but only I have the name.

The con is all the fun stuff, incredible, and amazing things you get to live as a parent. I am a mom and in literal awe of this little person and who he is, how he sees the world and what’s he’s making me see in the world every single day. I get to reexperience the world thanks to my child. I now constantly look for teeny tiny insects on the ground and get honest to God excited when I see any, or when I see certain cars, or birds. Not because that’s something that came natural to me, but because it’s something my child has made me see and appreciate. The amount of absolute belly laughs this little person has given me in his short life is completely unmatched by anyone else on this earth. It‘s autumn now and I hate the cold, but I am also absolutely giddy that it‘s starting because now I can press leaves and collect nuts with my kid. Would I give two hoots about that without him? No. But with him it’s honestly one of the more exciting things I‘m looking forward to in the next month. And let’s not even discuss Christmas. My kid makes the season magical for me.

There’s so much hard shit about being a parent and I would never want to convince anyone to have kids if you’re not up for it. Because the hard shit is relentless even when you are 100% onboard with being a parent. But my god is it awesome too, in the most literal sense of the word.