My space, my rules.

[stardreamer]

My house is for adults only.

We have an annual Chocolate Decadence party, and I routinely tell people that our house is not child-safe; as we have no young children ourselves, it doesn't need to be. Once I had to tell someone that her older children (~8-10) were not welcome because the previous year they had traumatized our timid cat, chasing him around the house and trying to pick him up, and he didn't come out from under the furniture for a week! I don't feel like a jerk about this. I'm not a public entity, and I have the right to make rules about what is or is not allowed in my space. My friends are polite; people with young children who can't afford a babysitter send their regrets.

The writer of the linked article has much less tolerance for children (especially teenagers) than I have. She wants her gatherings to be of and for adults only, having the kind of conversations that bore kids to tears, and not having to worry about what someone else's kid is doing in her kitchen, or about monitoring herself and her friends for "appropriate" language. She is not a jerk for doing this. She has the same right that I have to make rules about what is or is not allowed in her space.

This whole thing is very reminiscent of the arguments about smoking 30 years ago, where smokers insisted that they had the right to bring their pollution everywhere they went and other people just had to put up with it. And although it will be a long time before you see any significant percentage of public establishments saying "no children", people are perfectly within their rights to make that rule in their own homes.

'Strangers should mind their own business about my child-free status'

[wolfpurplemoon]

It was supposed to be an innocent, throwaway half-hour in the hairdresser’s chair. But when does a pre-wedding blow-dry become the Spanish inquisition? When babies, or lack thereof, are mentioned.

Now, I love a chatty hairstylist as much as the next barnet, but perhaps the rudiments of polite client chat should be covered in training along with the basics of foil highlights. Because things can get boring — and sexist — pretty quickly.

Initially, we talk about the wedding that I am due to attend, and what kind of wedding I might like myself.

“The non-existent kind,” I reply, breezily.
This does not go down well.

“What about babies?” asks the stylist, herself a young mother. (Read more)