Most of my married friends now have children, the rewards of which appear to be exclusively intangible. . . It’s as if these people have joined a cult: they claim to be happier and more fulfilled than ever before, even though they live in conditions of appalling filth and degradation, deprived of the most basic freedoms and dignity, and owe unquestioned obedience to a pampered sociopathic master whose every whim is law. (Note to friends with children: I am referring only to other people’s children, not yours.) They are frantic and haggard and constantly exhausted, getting through the days of a sleep deficit of three years, complaining about how busy and circumscribed their lives are, as though they hadn’t freely chosen it at all.
From: Tim Kreider, “The Referendum” in We Learn Nothing
I laughed out loud when I read this last week, and then stopped abruptly, so I wouldn’t wake my masters.
