Do you feel being a parent limits the intellectual side of your personality?

[Chubroach]

My wife and I do not have kids, nor have any interest in having any in the future. Though I do have an observation about people (especially women) who have children:

The kids control and dominate their life and make them boring people!

The people I meet who seem to be interesting intellectual individuals do not have kids. These are the people who care about learning about the world around them, read interesting non fiction books, magazines and newspapers and like to talk about current events. They are involved in the community.

The women who have children like to talk about one thing- THEIR KIDS. It seems like they have any one interest- their kids. Conversation with mothers is boring. "Oh, Johnny has been sick" "Did I tell you that Johnny has had trouble in school?" "Johnny has wants a new pair of tennis shoes" ON AND ON.

So does having children limit the intellectual development of people who have children?

 

[browneyes]

 

[Kermit]

You're spending far too much time thinking about this issue. Instead, you should try to determine what part of your life made you capable of asking such a moronic question.

 

[browneyes]

Originally posted by Kermit
You're spending far too much time thinking about this issue. Instead, you should try to determine what part of your life made you capable of asking such a moronic question.

If Chubroach knows anything about Freud, he could figure out how he came up with such a moronic question.

 

[Jeafl]

In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I'm sorry that you don't know any stimulating people that are parents, but I sure do. My husband and I are both well educated, well-rounded individuals, as are most of our friends.

We are all quite capable of going out for an evening and never even bringing up the subject of our children. In fact, it happens more often than not. Most of us have jobs, some more interesting than others. I only work part time, but in my off time I volunteer at a women's shelter, plus I run a reading program for 5th graders at my children's school.

I do not allow my children to "dominate my life" either. They are all involved in activities, but we also do a lot of things as a family. My husband and I go out twice a month with a group of friends without our children as well.

The most boring person I know is a friend of my husband who is not married, nor does he have any children. All he wants to talk about is his job (he is an engineer) or sports. Talk about boring! I don't think I've ever heard him talk about current events.

I have a feeling you are going to ruffle a lot of feathers with this post. I must admit, mine are a little ruffled as well.

 

[Tinkerbelle739]

So does having children limit the intellectual development of people who have children? [/B][/QUOTE]

No, this only happens to those who choose NOT to have children!! LOL, you are going to be flamed here, you know that, right?

Wishing everyone a "magical" day!

 

[helenabear]

Originally posted by Chubroach

So does having children limit the intellectual development of people who have children?

From what I see... NO!

It would be as accurate to say that as it would to be saying that those who do not have kids are really only selfish fools who pretend to be interested in the world about them, when in reality it is all just an act to show others how "great they really are". That deep down inside they are just trying to be better than the rest and do only what makes them happy and feel good about themselves.

And no, I don't have kids... so no one can claim I make that statement as a parent who is being over defensive.

 

[disneygals]

No, I was shallow and boring before I had kids, too.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Originally posted by Chubroach
My wife and I do not have kids, nor have any interest in having any in the future. Though I do have an observation about people (especially women) who have children:

The kids control and dominate their life and make them boring people!

The people I meet who seem to be interesting intellectual individuals do not have kids. These are the people who care about learning about the world around them, read interesting non fiction books, magazines and newspapers and like to talk about current events. They are involved in the community.

The women who have children like to talk about one thing- THEIR KIDS. It seems like they have any one interest- their kids. Conversation with mothers is boring. "Oh, Johnny has been sick" "Did I tell you that Johnny has had trouble in school?" "Johnny has wants a new pair of tennis shoes" ON AND ON.

So does having children limit the intellectual development of people who have children?

Are you this much of a tool IRL??

 

[holycow]

LOL
Where do you live? It's a shame there aren't more intellectually stimulating mothers around to converse with. Maybe you need to move.

HC

 

[bjgrazi]

duh um....... what was the question again? I was too busy talking about my kids to listen to your foolishness.

 

[huey duey & luey]

Gee, its a good thing that NYU didn't revoke my masters degree that I achieved on a 100% scholarship when I gave birth.
It may also be a good thing that you are choosing not to have children
Tara

 

[bananiem]

Let's see...the last one to bring this up mysteriously disappeared and the one before that just had a baby. Hmmmm...
I think the OP needs to widen his circle of friends or realize that not everyone finds his topics eye-opening pronouncements either.

 

[ryanpatricksmom]

Huh? Could you type slower? I didn't understand the question.

 

[Sandy V.]

What's the matter - did things get boring over on the Debate Board, so you decided to be a pot stirrer here?

To answer your original question - No. Interesting and boring people come in all packages - married, unmarried, parents, nonparents. If you can't find intellectually stimulating parents to converse with, then you obviously haven't looked hard enough.

Why someone would ask such an loaded question on a family-oriented board is beyond me . . .

 

[Toby'sFriend]

read interesting non fiction books, magazines and newspapers and like to talk about current events.

Why I was just reading Highlights for Children to the baby last night! Doesn't that count?

 

[clutter]

I used to be one of those interesting, intellectual people. I was SO boring, I'm not sure how I stayed awake. Since I've had my dd, I've learned life's most important lesson: how to laugh.

Guess my child taught me what was important.

 

[snoopy]

One thing I have come across in my own travels here on the DIS is a certain number of childfree people who talk about nothing other than the fact that they don't have children. They are talking more about NOT having children than I am about the children I already have, that is for sure.

 

[klmklm]

Thanks for the giggle this morning, Chubroach!

Seriously, if you want intellectual discussion, why aren't you posting on topics that interest you?

Since you raise the question, here is my favorite story about combining parenting with the life of the mind:

When my daughter was one, I took her to story time at the library. She really enjoyed it. The librarians were talking to each parent afterwards, suggesting books, etc. For us, they suggested that I make a scrapbook that we could look through together. "Just cut out pictures of babies and food and so on from your womens' magazines," they suggested. This made me smile: My only subscriptions at the time were _Analog_ and _Linguistic Inquiry_. That would have been some scrapbook!

 

[meandtheguys]

Sounds like a debate board question to me.