Cringeworthy 'Trad' Meme Inspires Discussion on the Decision to Have Children

Author image for Ada Elder
Ada Elder
Dec 30, 2022 5:00 PM EST

As we dive into the autumnal season, many people are excited about the approach of Halloween. While I enjoy dressing up and partying as much as the next person, fall just makes me dread Thanksgiving. Dry turkey aside, as a woman who is approaching the end of child-bearing age, Thanksgiving promises a host of older relatives asking me when my partner and are going to have children. And as broke New Yorkers, one of whom is in graduate school, that's not happening any time soon, if ever. We're perfectly happy showering our cats with affection and enjoying the children of our friends and family vicariously. 

Sadly, our complacency regarding childlessness - and even the pleasure of it - is controversial. As the annual number of births in many countries dwindles, many people are concerned about the social and economic implications of changing attitudes towards raising children. While these talking points are prevalent in news media and cringey think pieces, they're also very present in memes. And because there is a steadily growing "trad" on social media, many of these memes decry the choice to remain childless. 

Twitter user @EvilEuphoriTori shared one such meme yesterday, and it has inspired quite a bit of discussion on the bird app. The "Wojak" meme depicts a family "in every other century ever." They're depicted as farmers, which is made clear thanks to the muscular "Chad" dad wielding a rake. The father is joined by a very trad-looking mother and nine creepy Chad "Wojak" babies. The caption beneath this apparent ideal is as follows: 

"CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING NOT AN EXPENSE, WE SHALL HAVE AS MANY AS GOD WILLS" 

Um, okay.

The other side of the meme features "Families Now," which apparently consist of a single bespectacled woman and her four cats. Beneath that image is the text "MY CATS ARE MY SONS." 

Whoever made this meme sincerely thinks the world is headed in the wrong direction because some people would rather have cats than kids. As I'm sure many of you are aware, the internet is flush with cat-lovers, and many netizens did not take kindly to this messaging - not just because of the cats, but because the idealized side of the meme is incredibly misguided. We've collected their thoughts below but want to know - is there really anything wrong with wanting cats more than kids? 

 

 

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  • 01
    Font - Evil Victoria O @EvilEuphoriTori They did not view children as a blessing. Kids were just a necessity for both passing on your bloodline and work. This is just rose tinted glasses FAMILIES IN EVERY OTHER CENTURY EVER CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING NOT AN EXPENSE, WE SHALL HAVE AS MANY AS GOD WILLS "FAMILIES" NOW MY CATS ARE MY SONS!!!!!!!!
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 02
    Font - Evil Victoria 紅米 @EvilEuphoriTori Also as a woman I would take the cats over the guy who posted this unironically on reddit 8:15 AM 9/25/22 Twitter for iPhone . 30 Retweets 6 Quote Tweets 2,133 Likes
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 03
    Hat - Kiltan K @Starvingwolf Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori ME 1) Died of pneumonia, age 2 2) Died of pneumonia, age 1 3) Had to be drowned, as he was clearly replaced at birth by a forest imp with a changling 4) Bitten by a bug, died of sepsis, age 3 5) Died of bad humours, age 5 6) Kicked to death by a horse when he was finally old enough to start working at the farm, age 6 7) Died of diarrhea, age 3 8) Died of 'cough', age 2 9) Borgis Son of Borgis, who survived to marriable age and will inheri
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 04
    Font - 1) Died of pneumonia, age 2 2) Died of pneumonia, age 1 3) Had to be drowned, as he was clearly replaced at birth by a forest imp with a changling 4) Bitten by a bug, died of sepsis, age 3 5) Died of bad humours, age 5 6) Kicked to death by a horse when he was finally old enough to start working at the farm, age 6 7) Died of diarrhea, age 3 8) Died of 'cough', age 2 9) Borgis Son of Borgis, who survived to marriable age and will inherit his father's duties as a serf, serving 17 165 1,986
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 05
    Font - von honking ton @vonhonkington Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Sure golden years where children are a blessing, except there wasn't even a vocabulary for child abuse or sexual assault 7:53 PM - 9/25/22 Twitter for Android 25 Likes
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 06
    Font - CacoQueen @Caco_Queen. 1d Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori fixed it FAMILIES IN EVERY OTHER CENTURY EVER i beat my wife and most of my children died before their 4th birthday 20 121 FAMILIES NOW i don't feel prepared for childhood and that's ok 2,673 ↑ naka @naka2531.9h Humans are literally evolved to have kids, it's engrained into our neurology. Most people statistically grow apart from the friends they had when they were young, parents die, pets die, and your kids are the only people who wi
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 07
    Font - David A Gilbert @David Goes Places Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori I think the problem is this it's an anti-science view. In nature, many species modulate population to conform to resource availability. Infinite growth is a dead end. I get that it feels weird for some people but we've got to navigate this somehow. 11:42 AM - 9/25/22 Twitter Web App 5 Retweets 2 Quote Tweets 132 Likes
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 08
    Font - R Bratten Weiss @Prof_RBW Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Many folk tales from the European tradition involve parents trying to kill their children. During desperate times children often were seen as a burden. In earlier versions of stories like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, the evil stepmothers were biological mothers. 7:26 PM - 9/25/22 Twitter Web App 1 Retweet 3 Quote Tweets 51 Likes
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 09
    Font - SNAP! MatchesMalone @trocchio33.23h Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Also your kids had a 25% chance of not making it past their second birthday so it was best to basically be constantly pregnant to maximize the number of kids you can have 6 460 ↑ Ascendent @Anomander2249-22h The Romans had a established practice called infant exposure where unwanted babies were just left to die. They had designated places for this. 11 13 ↑ 209
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 10
    Product - k @skepticalspice. 13h Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori I love how the children are objectively terrifying lol 2 27 3 k@skepticalspice 13h. like who in their right mind sees these side by side and thinks that demonic shit looks preferable Imao LDREN ARE A BLESS] AN EXPENSE, WE S VE AS MANY AS GOD' . 22 28 ↑, MY CATS ARE MY SONS!!!!!!! 26
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 11
    Organism - BLA DEAD Kim Pine Blowing Their Brains.... 17h Replying to @Evil EuphoriTori Also who wants to bet this was made by a conservative who opposes child focused welfare programs because 'poor people shouldn't have kids if they can't afford them'? 2 O 13 sasha whyte @sonie2010.4h 12 224 ↑₁
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 12
    Cat - No More Mx. Nice Catboi (they/he/... @FlamePanda87 Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Whoever made this better not talk to me or my dapper son again.
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 13
    Font - Amanda K Rogers @akrogers_az. 9h Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori I will never understand why they want people who don't want kids to be parents. If people know they couldn't handle parenting, isn't it better for them, the hypothetical kids, and the world to NOT BECOME PARENTS? 1 27 2 1 21 Flats A Because people want you to join them in the misery of having kids 12 @dreckdub 9h ● 2 ↑₁
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 14
    Font - naka @naka2531 Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Humans are literally evolved to have kids, it's engrained into our neurology. Most people statistically grow apart from the friends they had when they were young, parents die, pets die, and your kids are the only people who will be around until the end and never leave you 12:10 AM 9/26/22 Twitter for iPhone 3 Likes . 27 THE THIRD OPINION @Ellis8... · 55m Replying to @naka2531 and @EvilEuphoriTori Interesting you didn't mention the partner. I hav
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 15
    Font - Punished Stevie @PunishedStevie Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori My older brother has four kids. My grandma was like, "That's too many kids," and I said, "You had four kids," and she said, "Yeah, in Haiti. We were well-off and lived near family. Then we came to America and had hard jobs, multiple, but union jobs. It's not like that anymore." 8:42 PM 9/25/22 Twitter Web App ●
    via @evileuphoritori
  • 16
    Font - Sidd @nolightupstairs - 18h Replying to @EvilEuphoriTori Farmer men getting like 15g of protein a day did not look like that lol. 2 27 59 ↑ Ash @BarbiturateCat. 14h Both my parents were born and raised on farms and both sets of my grandparents were short and definitely not muscular despite lifetimes of hard manual labor. I feel like the people who make these memes have never been within 100 miles of an actual family farm. 2 27 2 60 ↑
    via @evileuphoritori

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raising children conservatives parenthood traditional incels parenting Memes wojak Cats
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