The stigmatization is from talking about your "childfree" wonderfulness.
The Athiest who talks about his athiesm is the same kind of PITA.
Yep, this. If you've decided you don't like something, yet you drone on and on about it, you come off as negative. No one likes that.
Talking about
the children you have is different. You're discussing something that IS in your life, something around which your life revolves. Talking about something you've opted NOT to include in your life is a drag. To tie this into the main theme of this board, you could say that frugality is kind of the same. People like to talk about the movie they just saw, the restaurant they visited last weekend, the vacation they took recently ... it's not as much fun to listen to someone discuss how much money they've saved by not having cable, by not going to restaurants, by not taking vacations. Negatives aren't as much fun to discuss.
Having said that, it's polite to consider your audience: Your mom will probably love to hear about her grandchildren's antics, whereas your co-workers may not enjoy them on a regular basis.
I haven't personally been a victim of raging breeders.
Okay, see, that's just rude. If you throw around terms like this in real life, I understand why people react negatively.
Despite never having wanted to have kids, getting my tubes tied was a huge ordeal. I kept being refused because I was "too young" and was "going to change my mind." Ugh. I finally got it done when I was 33.
In all fairness, I know a ton of people who -- when they were young -- said they didn't want children, then changed their minds for various reasons. I can understand why a doctor is not really open to shutting down your choices at a young age. You can always use birth control, which is cheap and highly effective when used properly, but tubals can't always be reversed.
Incidentally, I toyed with the idea of having a tubal ligation when my second child was born -- I was late 20s -- and the doctor's rule was that my husband and I both had to sign paperwork 30 days in advance (no last minute decisions, which I can understand). I didn't have the surgery. Later I had some "female problems" and ended up having the tubal along with some other surgery ... because I was past 40, no questions about waiting, no notorized signature from my husband. I did think that was a bit hypocritical ... what wasn't acceptable at 20-something was acceptable at 40.
Shit, Betsy Devos has four kids, and girl would be happy if public schools disappeared completely!
Regardless of how you feel about public schools, they are in the process of disappearing right now. We've experienced massive changes in the last decade; primarily, a very big slice of our high-socio-economic status kids are leaving for charter schools, online schools, or homeschools. The result is that the public school population is shifting downward in terms of ability, achievement, and parental support. This is not good for society, as our weakest children are receiving less and less from public schools.
Almost every group of people is self righteous about their lifestyle. If they didn't think it was the 'right' way to live, they probably wouldn't be doing it. I don't think that the pro-children group is any better or worse in this regard.
Eh, I think "self righteous" is too strong a word. I have children, and they've been the best part of my life -- the "right choice" -- and as a result, on some level, I don't quite "get" why everyone wouldn't want these wonderful experiences ... but does that mean I think someone else
should make the same choices or that I look down on other people because they made different choices? No.
I also think some people are quite thin-skinned about anything short of throwing a parade for their choices. Don't take other people's opinions too seriously.