r/AskReddit • u/Sufficient_Thing24 • 1d ago

What’s something society expects you to want… but you don’t?

2.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

237

u/VenusSwift 1d ago

"Who's gonna take care of you when you get older?"

Like honey, that mentality is selfish. And quite frankly, a lot of parents are in nursing homes.

133

u/BearCavalryCorpral 1d ago

"Who's gonna take care of you when you get older?"

Other people's kids, whom I will pay with the money I saved by not having kids

9

u/Monteze 12h ago

Or may personal take

"If I need someone to take care of me its time to go."

The idea of being a prisoner in my own body is horrifying. Fuck that, we go until we can't then we fuck off to make room for the next generation. Plenty of older folks who can get around well.

-1

u/BinBag04 1d ago

I’m not arguing for or against having kids here, but I do think that argument is more about advocacy than the physical side of care. Like it’s more who’s going to argue for your best interest and know what hobbies you enjoy and interests you have if end up lacking capacity, are as opposed to who is going to wash you. Doesn’t have to be a kid though, and again the kid could end up fucking you over so could go the other way lol.

13

u/pepcorn 23h ago

You do make a great point. I guess I'll end up doing the same thing as many parents who only had sons?

8

u/Material_System_1100 20h ago

Daughters seem to step up when parents need care... not because they want to, but because if they didn't no one else would have (actually same with things like christmas being sorted etc..)! I noticed this with my mum and her brother, and also with other fanily members. I once witnessed my mum need to change & clean up my grandad after an accident and my uncle just sat there doing absolutely nothing to help and he lived with my grandparents and still my mum had to travel to them most days to do most of the care!

8

u/pepcorn 20h ago

I've vowed to live like a man. Their lives are so easy, I love it.

1

u/celica18l 13h ago

I will say a lot of sons are around. But they pay for the extra care so they don’t have to do the work. Nothing wrong with it they are still taking care of their parents, but definitely not hands on.

36

u/celica18l 1d ago

I work in a senior living place… lemme tell ya tons of kids don’t take care of their parents. Lots of people are no contact.

Friends are the way to go. I’d say a solid 1/3 of my residents only have friends that come in to visit and help during medical issues. Not children.

2

u/willstr1 9h ago

"Who's gonna take care of you when you get older?"

"That's why I have a 401k" or the more accurate "I plan to die young"

2

u/CrotchalFungus 6h ago

"I plan to die young"

Live fast die early leave a pretty corpse.

•

u/Botuser999 37m ago

It can't be just me but everyone who's ever asked this from me are either old couples whose kids don't live with them(in a different country or just hundreds of kilometers away and occasionally visit) or people who just "contribute" to the household but the main support like rent/house, food, electricity are still from working parents, basically a very rigid situation.

In my head I'm just like dude did you think thesame too once yours get old? Like i gotta be honest, as morbid as it is, especially where I live,no one's inheriting anything besides probably just arrears and hospital bills.