People in their 40s and 50s with no children, how does it feel?

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Mixed, but mostly okay.
Pros: The world is massively overpopulated already. Our genes aren't particularly noteworthy. I'm not very optimistic about the future. People's happiness generally seems a lot less than it was when I was younger and I don't see that changing.
Cons: Not being able to pass anything on - my knowledge and experience, ironically much of which was gained through having time that would have been unavailable if I had had kids. As we both get older, our own care is concerning. Doing physical things around our smallholding is getting harder and a pair of young hands would be nice.
I don't begrudge other people having kids. We tried once but lost it and that kind of took the excitement out of it for us. Before we knew it, it was too late anyway.
- Not being able to pass anything on - my knowledge and experience
  I know this may sound like satire but you can write a blog and share your knowledge and experiences. It may seem weird at first, but it's an actual option, and people could organically come across your blog, especially if you use the right keywords that they're looking for.
  
  Thanks, that's some good thoughts. I do already do that, contribute to FOSS, write fiction and I've taught some stuff to younger folk at work so it's not entirely wasted. If I can achive net zero on whatever cosmic scoreboard is in place, I figure that's okay.
  
  Sounds like you're doing well then. I do the same with contributing to FOSS (and I maintain a couple FOSS projects) and I teach younger devs at work, and have a blog (technically two), so I'm in the same boat.
- You could look into some kind of work experience program or even troubled youth programs operating in your area that might be able to make use of your knowledge and your property?
  We don't need kids to pass on what we know to the young :)

149 comments