So I do like children (theoretically), but when I see anyone with children it kind of feels like they're flaunting their Corvette at me

Like it just feels sometimes like having children is meant to symbolize achieving a Grand Slam of being welcomed into exclusive spaces

Like to some degree, particularly out in the suburbs, parental status is absolutely a signifier intended to ostracize and alienate any adult who doesn't/can't have it

Which, of course, isn't the fault of the kids, by sheer statistics of course they're mostly raised by normies

The fact of the matter is that my childlessness is a serious reason that a lot of people my age around the community I live in will never actually say a word to me other than "can you please restock the toilet paper rolls in the bathroom"

And, you know, as you get older you're supposed to justify your position in life by holding up all the people who depend on you as sort of an endorsement

You promote the person who has kids because "they need it more" or whatever, which, idk, maybe they do, I don't know

But I mean maybe they don't need it more, but you trust them more because they have proof somebody loved them, if even for just one night, they have these small beings nobody has taken from them which proves they can be beholden to someone, that they'll uphold the social contract

The fact that I don't have kids is the self-evident proof I am a social outcast and the fact of my being a social outcast is proof that I may be dangerous and cannot be trusted

And the possibility that I may be dangerous and cannot be trusted is the reason I don't have kids

(Well, it isn't, but, y'know, it's _one_ reason.)

So anyway when there's some douchebag running around with kids it's kind of hard not to see them and be like "yeah congrats my dude you sure were admitted into the game" and go back to squatting in the ditch you have to live in