>I mean they really aren't your friends now are they? The relationships are really conditional on your children, not on your own interests and personality.
Is it any different from your "church friends" (contingent to going to church) or your "gym friends" (contingent to going to gym) or your coworkers (contingent on staying at that workplace. i.e. not being laid off or pursuing a better job) who may or may not be friendly? It's how school friends are made, and I'm guessing we all lost contact with many of them upon graduation.
Some may become regular friends outside the activity, many probably won't. But bonding over a common interest seems to be the most common first step, and (for better or worse) "having a child of X age" is certainly a vested interest to bond over.
>I mean, that's pretty dystopian when you look at it unless you really think that raising children is the highest purpose a person can have.
Some may indeed feel that way. But for it being dystopian, I just see it as a way of life. you don't HAVE to make friends with other parents, but it's an avenue that you have that I as a single male would have less access to.
Is it any different from your "church friends" (contingent to going to church) or your "gym friends" (contingent to going to gym) or your coworkers (contingent on staying at that workplace. i.e. not being laid off or pursuing a better job) who may or may not be friendly? It's how school friends are made, and I'm guessing we all lost contact with many of them upon graduation.
Some may become regular friends outside the activity, many probably won't. But bonding over a common interest seems to be the most common first step, and (for better or worse) "having a child of X age" is certainly a vested interest to bond over.
>I mean, that's pretty dystopian when you look at it unless you really think that raising children is the highest purpose a person can have.
Some may indeed feel that way. But for it being dystopian, I just see it as a way of life. you don't HAVE to make friends with other parents, but it's an avenue that you have that I as a single male would have less access to.