Reply #112: I had that happen on Father's Day a couple of years ago [View All]

The young man then asked, "Are you a father, sir?"

My response was, "Well, I hope not."

I'm 54, childless by choice, but was a young man once and traveled a lot...

I think Mother's Day is much more emotionally charged than Father's Day. It was for myself and my wife at least. Even though she also chose to remain childless, she was much more disturbed by such greetings, recognitions in church, etc. than I was. I do think there's _such_ an expectation of women to be mothers, and an implication that they somehow 'failed' if they aren't. I don't understand that attitude in any reasonably educated society. Our number one problem is overpopulation, and whether one has children or not should be irrelevant - in fact, Octomoms and the Duggers and Full Quiver (or whoever those people are who have as many kids 'for Christ' as possible) should be ostracized, not celebrated. The gene pool is big enough. They are not making a contribution.