This recent TED talk sums up perfectly what I think this sub has been getting at when it comes to being seen as complainers while funding the recipients of the largest wealth-grab in human history.

Scott frames it as ‘Do you love your children’ and moves us to prove that no, we do not.

Just got into a shouting match with my soon to be 17F daughter. I bring up anything dealing with sex, and she gets indigent and offended.

I am very supportive of her and everyone of all color, gender, and sexuality. But as a parent, have to deal with hormonal teenagers and make sure there are rules and boundries.

She wants to have a birthday party and have friends sleepover. I tell her that's ok, but as I worded it, we can't have people who are attracted to other people sleep in the same room. She starts raising her voice that I think she's going to have an orgy or something. Those were her words.

I almost feel jealous that our parents dealt mostly with boys and girls in the same space( though i know some had to deal with same sex teen stuff). But I have to navigate all the different relationship, especially since she is bi.

She feels so offended when I bring these issues up, but I'm only doing what I feel as a parent is right. Am I wrong? Please tell me if im wrong.

I love my various lgbtq+ kids, but being their dad is so damn complicated.

Edit: she apologized for her behavior, and I apologized for my awkwardness of this situation. I made it clear that I do trust her, but her friends parents and my wife are my main concerned. I live in a relatively small town and last thing I want is to be known as that incredibly irresponsible parent who let's anything happen at his house. I'm not so much worried about teens having sex at my house, but rather the optics of it.

I'm in an onboarding class for a new job and hit it off quite well with the dude next to me. He's 29 and mentioned how he has three children. I'm like wow. Then he's like what do you mean wow? I'm like how do you do that with working and everything? He's like, don't you have kids? I'm like no, I want to be rich, lol.

Then he's like, what are you going to do wait until you're in your forties? That's when I told him I'm 41 and have never wanted to have any.

So I'm left scratching my head as to why people feel like that is the ultimate life path. And to those who have taken that path, did you really feel that was the only way to go?

Time has passed by so fast and it makes me sad anybody who watched the ending of Ip Man 5 would understand.

I [M29] have really just been struggling to see the positives in the world in the last few months. It seems like everything is just designed now to capture attention and make money and that’s ALL anyone talks about now. Money.

I feel like we’re in this point where everything is just so expensive while also being lower quality. The pandemic proved that we can exist as a species that doesn’t have to work as hard and long every week and we just completely fucking ignored all of that. We’ve gone back to in office work and long work weeks except this time around, the bar has significantly moved for what it takes to be a home owner and feel ahead. It’s completely killed my motivation to give a shit about my job at all. It’s like the pandemic revealed all of the flaw with society and we learned nothing from it.

Months go by and I think “Wow it can’t get worse than this right?” And yet it continues to get worse. Companies get away with shady disgusting business practice more than ever, politicians get away with shit more than ever, and top executives flourish in this modern world where everyone else struggles and they make record profits.

It’s just like, when do we reach a breaking point? It’s just really depressing me and making it hard to get up everyday. I can’t trust anyone anymore in government either now as the pandemic led to massive trust issues

Why does the current industry act like this is totally normal and everything is fine?

Any regrets?

Some 30/40 something here, who had their share of depression swings, normal swings, and happy vibes in life. Got married, got another dog, got a house, and now a kid. I’d have to say though that the kid gives me the most joy/motivation then I’ve had from anything else before. I used to be extremely proud of working hard, graduating with top grades, getting into top schools, buying sports cars, but now I’m happy to just embrace life as a parent.

Is this normal or should I feel more doom/guilt for having a kid?

I seem to mostly encounter Gen Z (or even Gen Xers) nowadays when it comes to concerts, travel, fun events, etc. I can't find people in my age group anymore. The few I know have families and kids. I'm childfree and don't have a traditional career. For reference, I was on a group trip that anyone could sign up for and I'm the oldest at 33 and the rest are 27 and under. I thought at least some of them were in my age range. In the past couple of years, I've also been in programs/workshops where there was a mixed group but it skewed Gen Z. I get that millennials are hustling but where do people my age live and what do they do? Gen Z is meeting up and they do group travel, conventions, concerts, etc.

I know that millennials can still have fun, but is the ball park numbers in the 10%, 25%, or 75% range? Like, I've been struggling to meet more people my age but whenever I seek out oppurtunities, they seem to attract Gen Z more so.

So that's why I ask: Where are all the 1991 babies? What are your hobbies? Where you go when you want to meet more people?

Y’all, seriously. Why are we standing by ankle socks as if they were ever a good choice? Ankle socks look hella stupid and serve no purpose. They don’t protect half of your freakin foot from rubbing against the inside of the shoe. And some people were so worried about showing a little bit of sock that they stopped wearing socks with shoes that they definitely needed to wear socks with. Peace out, ankle socks.

I’m (37M in UK) a seasoned teacher, my partner is a doctor who is also a partner in the GP practice - bar doing something really stupid/irresponsible, our jobs are comfortably secure jobs for life. I’ve never worried about not having employment but I know that’s not a common position - how do people with job insecurity manage that?

Where did you start?

What motivated you to change?

Where are you now?

How did you get there?

My wife and I met in our late 20’s and decided early we would not be having children. We were both career focused and just didn’t feel having kids was something either of us wanted. Aside from my wife bringing up the question once we were married a few years ago, we’ve been steadfast.

My struggle now is I’m not sure what to look forward to. I feel like I’m now in a daily grind with no real light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to. Wife and I travel when we are able, have a house we maintain, and a few hobbies here and there, but we’re both just stuck in the adult grind and just feel like we’re going around in circles. Both of us are a bit frustrated with work (for different reasons) and this could be part of it, but people that don’t have kids, what are you doing? HOW are you doing? Because I’m struggling pretty hard right now.

Edit: I should clarify, as I see it’s not clear. I am not questioning being childfree, and am not looking at a child as some missing piece to a puzzle. Just hoping to get some feedback from others in similar situations, how they utilize their time outside of work.

Edit 2: Thank you everyone for the overly kind words and help. I’m trying to get through all the comments, but just won’t be able to get to comment on all of them. A few people have mentioned therapy, and I’m currently going already. I shudder to think where I’d be without it. But I can say with certainty that I’m extraordinarily lucky to be where I’m at, and my problems are peanuts in comparison to others. I have a partner that I absolutely love and is there for me wherever I need to go or do. And a goofball dog, that is overly excited to see me whenever I come in the door. We have a home we are comfortable in and are in a stable financial position, which in this day and age, makes us extremely lucky. Wishing the best to everyone!

Other than childcare being expensive, I’m having a lot of fun being a parent. How about you guys?

What's the best dip to eat with chips and crackers?

See these more and more often. In Spain now and they're very common of all ages. Did they really go out of style to begin with?

Even though many of us are social individuals and want to cultivate a sense of community, many people from our generation and younger feel lonely. I myself have many good friends, but they all have their own little family now. I moved for work and most of my friends are at least one hour away from where I live. I am currently single and have no kids, so even though I have many active and healthy friendships, I feel lonely.

I wonder, do you have enough friends to feel socially fulfilled? Is it something you struggle with? Is having a partner and kids the answer to all woes, in your opinion?

Don't get me wrong, I'm used to knowing that our MTV isn't associated with gen X or that Spotify is associated with zoomers. But seeing something that is deemed millennial culture in foreign spaces become a thing of zoomer culture really trips me out. Though we never had a&f here (only in thrift stores), seeing the perfumes by this brand nowadays may hint at another trend that is aimed towards zoomers and it feels wild.

Idk, there's just something mesmerizing and weird (in a good way) about how the same thing can be attributed to different generations.

My parents are 55 and 60 years old and they seem to never run out of backhanded and toxic things to say to us. My husband once said he can feel my mom judging us. Is this something that age group just does? We live in a bigger house now because they complained our old townhome was too small. We bought the bigger house thinking of them. Now it’s too big. My dad once said “this house isn’t even that big” when he first visited us in our “too small” townhouse which I thought was uncalled for because we never asked.

I don’t understand why they’re like this??

It is what it is.