36 and still feeling like I did when I was 17.

[Markness]

The jokes were never an attack on you.
You may have noticed, I joke ALL the time, no joke.

I felt like I was being laughed at.

 

[Jonn]

I felt like I was being laughed at.

It was a simple misunderstanding.
My intention was never to laugh at you.

 

[Markness]

I am sometimes asked if why I am sad about the fact I don’t have a girlfriend is because I am not giving my parents grandchildren to bond with. That isn’t the case at all. My parents didn’t even want to become grandparents and even discouraged all their children from ever having any of their own. They spoil the grandchildren they do have but they still don’t want me to become a parent myself.

 

[tree]

"I am sometimes asked if why I am sad about the fact I don’t have a girlfriend
is because I am not giving my parents grandchildren to bond with."

That seems like a very strange point of view.

The idea that having children would be for the benefit/happiness of your parents.

 

[Markness]

"I am sometimes asked if why I am sad about the fact I don’t have a girlfriend
is because I am not giving my parents grandchildren to bond with."

That seems like a very strange point of view.

The idea that having children would be for the benefit/happiness of your parents.

A lot of it derives from the religious attitudes many people in the area have.

There are even billboards that you can see while driving on the interstate promoting pro-life messages and imagery.

 

[tree]

Sure.
Have seen those same sort of billboards along the roadside
here, a thousand miles from your area.
----
The viewpoint that children are for the benefit of person's parents
sort of takes one right out of the picture, doesn't it?

An individual existing to please others.


That sounds like how your parents view their children.
As existing to please them, not actually for them to have
their own lives.

 

[Markness]

Sure.
Have seen those same sort of billboards along the roadside
here, a thousand miles from your area.
----
The viewpoint that children are for the benefit of person's parents
sort of takes one right out of the picture, doesn't it?

An individual existing to please others.


That sounds like how your parents view their children.
As existing to please them, not actually for them to have
their own lives.

It does and it gives people the wrong idea about my struggles.

If I have or don’t have children, I want either decision to be my own. I just don’t want to not have a partner.