Parents don't deserve sympathy

I don't care how hard and frustrating you find parenthood.  The simple, unflinching truth is, it's your bed.  Only you have to lie in it.

What parents need to understand is that unless you were held captive and forced to breed against your will, no one made you have kids.  Even an accidental pregnancy doesn't mean you have to be a parent.  I don't mean abortion though if that's your choice, so be it.  But there's also adoption.  The point is, you don't have keep the baby, but if you choose to, then you are responsible for that decision.  Therefore you and you alone are also responsible for the consequences of that decision.

That means if you're unhappy that you can't go out and party like you use to, oh well.  It means that I don't care how expensive diapers are.  I don't care if your two year old is throwing a tantrum.  I don't care if you never have time to pamper yourself or use the bathroom alone.  I didn't force you to have kids.  You chose to. You deal with it.

And I'm not required to feel sorry for you because you feel sorry for yourself about your decision to have kids or to baby you when you complain about your life or your stretch marks or to tolerate you when you berate me, mock me or publicly try to shame me for not being awed by your perceived awesomeness.  So you gave birth.  Any idiot with a reproductive system can give birth.  Dogs give birth.  Procreation is not that awesome. It's just fricking biology.

I don't have to be a parent to recognize a bad one and parents that bitch and moan about how hard it is to be parents suck at being parents because they don't understand what being responsible for a child really means.

It means the child comes before YOU. It means YOU don't care if you get to go out like you used to, if you don't have as much privacy, if your two year old throws a tantrum or how expensive diapers are.  Your child is everything and you sacrifice everything for your child.  There's no sacrifice a few things and still maintain a vibrant social life.  The kid comes before YOU in everything.  You give up everything for your child for the forsee able future.

And it doesn't mean dragging the kid places YOU want to go.  It means limiting where you go to places that are age appropriate for your child.  The child comes first until they are all grown up and moved away.  That's the price you pay for being a parent and since you CHOSE to become a parent, it's the price YOU CHOOSE to pay.

And you don't have to be a parent to get that.  You just have to be a good human being.

So no, I'm not giving parents any damn sympathy.  I didn't make you have a kid.  I refuse to be held responsible for it.