I hate being called shellfish! I prefer crustatio.....Oh, SELFISH! Never mind.

As a man, I feel like I’m spared from a lot of this. Nearly all my guy friends are either impartial to my choice or confide in me that they love their kids, but wish they could go back in time and change the course of history.

I’ve only been called selfish once, by my buddy’s girlfriend. The subject came up and I said I didn’t want to be a dad -simple as that, no judgement on my part, and she immediately became hostile. It was shocking. Serious respect for those of you who encounter that on the regular.

I personally finding breeding in general selfish. They aren't doing FOR that new life. They don't even consider if that new person wants to be here, or what quality of life they will have (esp people passing on genetic disorders like EDS). They are doing it to complete THEIR own satisfaction. It is a drain on the state, country, and world resources, which are quickly diminishing. They don't care that they are killing the planet and leaving their "legacy" with soon to be nothing.

I take it as less of an insult and more of a 'joke.'
What fascinates me is when we get into a discussion as to why I choose not to have kids and one of the points I mention are, "the world is over populated as is now." and then, much like how a Christian tends to fall back on their knee-jerk reply, "... because God!" they say, "well, if everyone thinks like you, then there wouldn't be any population at ALL! — checkmate non-breeder!"
"Yea, ok dude, the problem is, not enough people think like me now. We have plenty of people now on the planet for several generations to not worry about making offspring for a while."

I have been called selfish, anti-family, a child hater, anti-god, pitiful, pathetic, bad and evil. Religious Fundies get REALLY nasty when they find out I am lifelong single and childless by choice. I get up and walk away from them. Then they call me rude. Wow.

Yeah, I don't get the selfish thing. How is not having something be considered selfish? I think creating extra people to be a burden on the government, social welfare, the education system, infrastructure, etc. because I want to pass on my genetics and have little monsters around is the selfish choice. My mother likes to point out to other people (especially if they have children) that I don't have kids, like it's a malady. She herself doesn't like children in my opinion and always blames us for ruining her figure. We were a bother to her most of our lives.

I can lie I get sightly offended that my choice not to have children is often judged as "selfish" but people seem to not have issues with parents having countless kids...... it's the assumption that I NEED to have them or society will somehow crumble that annoys me

I consider us (my other half and me) to be selfish to some degree - we'd be good parents, I believe, and would likely raise good children. We'd just prefer to live our own lives chasing our own goals, which I admit might make us selfish in some way.

On the other hand, because we have all our time and money to spend on ourselves, we're able to be positive figures in the lives of other children. Without giving them the crazy that my genes hold. They get the best of us, and then we give them back to their parents =p

As an antinatalist, it can be enraging sometimes considering that breeding causing immeasurable harm to their kid(s) and further descendants for their own enjoyment is the most selfish thing you can do, and their condemnation of not breeding and especially expression of their own/your parents/your partner's/the world's entitlement to your bio kids is such a destructive extension of their own ego.

While being childfree can sometimes have selfish motivations, it's also one of the few things that can be truly altruistic, something procreating can never truly be.

I have never understood that concept. I always argued that having children was selfish. One born every 4 seconds. 7.5 billion. Virus with shoes as Bill Hicks once said. The next decades are going to be tough on the planet. With mass movements of climate change refugees. The planet will survive. We won't. I have no spawn to worry over. It is a good thing.