Who on here doesn't have children?

[BrilloPad]

The truth of the matter is that a mothers love is stronger than a fathers love anyway from a biological standpoint. Actually carrying and giving birth to a child causes a much higher bond. From a blokes perspective that initial 30 seconds does not indicate a huge amount of emotional effort. Hence it's easier for feckless fathers to walk away for a woman to abandon their own child.

You would make a great family court judge.

Luckily you bigoted old foggies are being replaced by younger, female judges who understand that women don't just want to look after kids and singing "the wheels on the bus" 8 hours a day is not much fun.

Can't you go and wind up that redneck again? With a bit of luck he will slot you.

[formant]

But it's still the wrong choice, right?

For society and equality - yes. I'm still in no position to judge what's best for people individually at a specific time in their lives.

I have however met a good share of women who retrospectively wish they hadn't thrown they careers away following childbirth (no matter how irrelevant it all seemed back then). That sort of revelation tends to hit particularly hard in later cases of divorce or once your kids are out of the house and you're bored out of your mind.

What feels right for someone now may not be all that right for them tomorrow, so I'm not going to cheer anyone on if they want to make themselves dependent. I personally certainly think that that's never the right thing to do, but you sensed that already, I'm sure.

[MarillionFan]

You would make a great family court judge.

Luckily you bigoted old foggies are being replaced by younger, female judges who understand that women don't just want to look after kids and singing "the wheels on the bus" 8 hours a day is not much fun.

Can't you go and wind up that redneck again? With a bit of luck he will slot you.

Just happens to be my opinion & statistically provable. Mothers rarely abandon their own kids, biological fathers do it all the time. That shouldn't be used in court cases though we're both parents are looking at custody and/or visitation. At the point careful consideration must be given and to ensure one of the parents isn't Batman.

[TheFaQQer]

Peado!

[formant]

I disagree with Old Hack on step kids as, IMO, one usually has a favourite child (assuming you have more than one blood child) but strives to treat them fairly.

This is a good point, but one many parents don't like to admit. Everyone has a favourite, the child they bond most with, whose personality they find most endearing and so forth. But every decent parent won't live that out. You treat them all the same, biological or stepchild. Sure, I'll probably be marginally biased towards my own (particularly because my stepdaughters other genetic half really doesn't originate from a respectable human being), but when do you realistically have to do this choosing between them thing? And if you can come up with an example, what does that mean when you then need to choose between several of your own?

[SupremeSpod]

This is a good point, but one many parents don't like to admit. Everyone has a favourite, the child they bond most with, whose personality they find most endearing and so forth. But every decent parent won't live that out. You treat them all the same, biological or stepchild. Sure, I'll probably be marginally biased towards my own (particularly because my stepdaughters other genetic half really doesn't originate from a respectable human being), but when do you realistically have to do this choosing between them thing? And if you can come up with an example, what does that mean when you then need to choose between several of your own?

I hope you're getting married before bringing a child into the world.

[darmstadt]

Apparently I have a son but I thought the person I saw occasionally in our apartment was the lodger...

[SupremeSpod]

Apparently I have a son but I thought the person I saw occasionally in our apartment was the lodger...

Does he pay rent?

[MyUserName]

I seem to naturally favour my daughter and I try very hard not to let it influence me when it comes to making decisions.

When she was a baby she took to me far quicker than my son did, I used to sing her to sleep, sooth her when she was crying etc. The first night back from the hospital she slept on me because we could not put her on her back due to a scalp injury. My son simply screamed if I tried rocking or singing him to sleep and had almost no interest in me compared to his mother. Even now (15 months) he will not sit on my lap, in my arms etc if his mother is there. Whereas my daughter used to run over to me whenever I came home from work and insist that we went out someone that instant - the park, or for her to drive my car etc.

[shaunbhoy]

Everyone has a favourite, the child they bond most with, whose personality they find most endearing and so forth.

Speak for yourself. I bond just fine with all of my kids.