Erin’s Reviews > Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on The Decision Not To Have Kids > Status Update
Erin
is on page 273 of 288
…we childless ones, whether through bravery or cowardice, constitute a kind of existential vanguard, forced by our own choices to face the naked question of existence with fewer illusions, or at least fewer consolations, than the rest of humanity, forced to prove to ourselves anew every day that extinction does not negate meaning.
— Dec 16, 2024 04:47PM
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Erin’s Previous Updates
Erin
is on page 271 of 288
Is it possible that I will regret not having had children when I am old and dying alone? … Since I already regret every other thing I have ever done or failed to do, I don’t see why this decision should be exempt. … But I am long practiced at pursuing paths I know lead inevitably to regret.
— Dec 16, 2024 04:41PM
Erin
is on page 271 of 288
I’m afraid that if I ever did have children of my own I would love them so painfully it would rip my soul in half, that I would never again have a waking moment free from the terror that something bad might ever happen to them.
— Dec 16, 2024 04:30PM
Erin
is on page 269 of 288
Most people’s operating motive in life is pretty obviously not the pleasure principle, given the joyless choices they make; what they want is to be needed, to have a compelling reason to get out of bed every day.
— Dec 16, 2024 04:12PM
Erin
is on page 263 of 288
If the ultimate purpose of your life is your children, what’s the purpose of your children’s lives? To have your grandchildren? Isn’t anyone’s life ultimately meaningful in itself? If not, what’s the point of propagating it ad infinitum? After all, 0 x ∞ = 0.
— Dec 16, 2024 03:31PM
Erin
is on page 251 of 288
“I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another one of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.” Every time I read that note, I’m glad that Woolf didn’t have children.
— Dec 15, 2024 08:08PM
Erin
is on page 244 of 288
Life is such a complex, treacherous matter, so quickly lived and difficult to experience fully 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘺 because it is so crowded with diversity and choice. I decided to live what was left of my life in my own extreme, lopsided way and spare my child my worries and neuroses.
— Dec 15, 2024 06:50PM
Erin
is on page 228 of 288
He shrugged, raised his chestnut-brown hands toward the overhanging sun, and with a surprisingly tender blend of pity, sympathy, and resignation, he said, “ότι θέλει ο Θεός. Whatever God wants.”
— Dec 15, 2024 06:45PM
Erin
is on page 195 of 288
The perfect life does not and never will exist, and to assert otherwise perpetuates a pernicious fantasy: that it’s possible to live without regrets. There is no life without regrets. Every important choice has its benefits and its deficits, whether or not people admit it or even recognize the fact…
— Dec 14, 2024 11:58PM
Erin
is on page 195 of 288
… I was perturbed by the message, and by upbeat catchphrases like “having it all” and “childfree,” which seemed to imply that denying a loss makes it disappear, or that acknowledging it means one feels incomplete.
— Dec 14, 2024 11:53PM
Erin
is on page 178 of 288
Selfishness and generosity are not regulated to particular life choices, and if generosity is a worthy life goal—and I believe it is—perhaps our task is to choose the path that for us creates its best opportunity.
— Dec 14, 2024 02:22PM
