this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
555 points (100.0% liked)
WomensStuff
1289 readers
425 users here now
Women only trans inclusive This is an inclusive community for all things women. Whether you're here for make up tips, feminism or just friendly chit chat, we've got you covered.
Rules…
- Women only… trans women are women, and transphobic or gender critical talk isn’t allowed. Anyone under the trans umbrella (e.g. non-binary, bigender, agender) is free to decide whether a women's community is a good fit for them.
- Don’t be a dick. No personal attacks, no aggression, play nice.
- Don’t hate on groups, hatefilled talk about groups is not allowed. Ever.
- No governmental politics, so no talk of Trump actions etc. We recommend Feminism@beehaw.org for that, but here is an escape from it.
- New accounts or users with few comments may have their posts removed to prevent spam and bad-faith participation.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The purpose thing always gets me. I came from a large family, six kids. We're all long since out of the house. And while kids did give h my mom a sense of purpose, in her 50s, she had to find a purpose all over again! Once all the kids were out of the house, as an empty nester, she had to find things to occupy her time. And she's found a variety of very rewarding volunteer work in the community to do so.
Not that having kids won't give you a sense of purpose, but that sense only really lasts while the kids are young and in need of a lot of active childcare. Once they're in high school, you'll need to find something else to produce that sense of purpose and keep yourself busy. So if you're having kids just for a sense of purpose, you would be better off focusing on just that and leaving the actual human beings out of it.
The planet's on fucking fire. I have so many purposes already. I need to stop climate change, destroy capitalism, decolonise Australia, help the trans kids stop dying, get Bibi to go home, teach people to perceive otherkin kindly... Anyone who needs a kid to give them purpose has no empathy and would make a bad parent in My opinion. Fight for the kids who are dying in Gaza. We don't need more purposes, we need more helpers.
When I was a kid I got diagnosed with depression and anxiety because I was always thinking about climate change and how to save the world. But I'm not scared. I'm angry.
My mom always says her children are her purpose and I find it unhealthy. My younger sibling still lives with my parents, so the nest isn't empty, but she places a lot of emotional burden on us because her marriage is toxic and even working a lot and having her hobbies isn't enough to offset it. So instead of divorcing my father and focusing on her mental and physical health, she uses us as sort of an emotional crutch. I just don't get it.