I'm sorry did you mistype? I can't know what it's like to not have children? Everyone knows what it's like to not have children, no one is brought into this world already having children. What the fuck are you even trying to say?

And your sexuality comparison is stupid because sexuality is something you're born with, and you can try the other side without permanently changing yourself, unlike parenthood.

Everything you said is objectively wrong.

"I refuse to be just another person doing something because of chemicals and biology."

Then I've got some bad new for you. Everything you do is because of chemicals and biology. You felt the need to post this dumbass comment because of chemicals and biology. Everything that you have ever done and ever will do are because of chemicals in your brain telling you to do things. You will never outsmart these chemicals because you are these chemicals.

For all intents and purposes, they are magical feelings that come out of nowhere and make you feel happy and patient and full of love for your child.

Something which you clearly don't understand at all, which only serves to further prove my original point, so I guess thank you?

Intelligent, mature adults do a lot of good things too, so your argument is literally meaningless.

Another strawman argument. I never said anything about biology. Adoptive parents are still parents. Your siblings are still your siblings.

It's still different than a child someone considers as "not theirs".

And btw you were a child, you weren't ready for that kind of responsibility and shouldn't have had to do those things, and I'm genuinely sorry that you had to experience that, and I'm glad your siblings had someone in their life to look out for them. I'm sure that made all the difference to them.

I agree with every word of that, except the first line. My point is that OP cannot possibly know if owning pets will provide them the same satisfaction as having children because they've never had children.

No one here is actually disputing what I actually said, because what I actually said is correct. I made a statement, and everyone threw their strawman arguments at me.

"You're comparing taking a shit with the hours long process of labor and bringing a life into the world. The 2 are nowhere near comparable."

Thank you for agreeing with me, I'm glad you came around.

"You're comparing taking a shit with the hours long process of labor and bringing a life into the world. The 2 are nowhere near comparable."

Thank you for agreeing with me, I'm glad you came around.

Friend, this is a forum website designed for discussion and interaction. If you want an echo chamber, I'm sure there are places dedicated to that, but this is not it.

Start your own private instance, only allow specific people in, close that shit up tight if you want.

This is not that place.

Mature and intelligent in the scientific sense. As in "intelligent life".

Holding someone else's child is completely different from holding your own child that you created and gave life to. OP has never held their own child, and therefore cannot possibly say that pet ownership gives them the same satisfaction.

Op is talking about holding their pet, an experience they have had, and holding their child, an experience they have not had. Therefore they absolutely cannot try to compare the two.

All OP can say is that having pets gives them the same enjoyment as holding someone else's baby, which is most likely absolutely true. But that's not what was said. They tried to equate pet ownership to bringing and nurturing a life into this world and I'm sorry but that's fucking ridiculous, period.

Okay and my great uncle Fred took a dump that he insists was as difficult to pass as a human child. Since he's talking about his experiences, not anyone else's, he must be right, right? By your logic my uncle Fred genuinely knows what childbirth feels like, correct?

Or does the fact that he has never experienced childbirth exclude him from making such comparisons?

I'm sorry but they are indeed comparable. It's someone who has never experienced something pretending they know what it's like.

Nothing about this equivalency is false. You are wrong.