Men without cats.

What is up with hating women without children?

Since I read the centrist to conservative press just as much as I read the liberal press, I see a lot of people who really do seem to hate women without children, cats or no cats. It’s a bizarre inversion of the hatred of single women with children that my mom and I experienced during the Reagan years when I was little. At the time, women who had no husband (even if they were married when their child was born) were demonized as the cause of all evil. Then Newt Gingrich proposed that crazy orphanage idea. Now it’s women without children who are supposed to be so AWFL.

What is up with that? One might think it’s that someone figured out that those of us without children are much less dependent on men than those who have children. One of my main reasons for not having kids is that I never believed that a man would stick around to take care of them. I am so pleased to see my friends and former boyfriends have turned into wonderful husbands and fathers. If I had married one of them, maybe I would have had kids. Possibly. But I didn’t, in large part because I never wanted children. I’m just lacking that gene, for whatever reason. I knew in fourth grade that I didn’t want kids. Yet I love teaching, mentoring, and all sorts of other ways of helping the next generation grow up well.

I strongly feel it is dangerous to ascribe motivations to people without asking them why they do or think what they do or think. I saw liberals do it in this election and the aftermath, and I see conservatives do it all the time. I think I will ask some of them why they hate childless women. And why not hate childless men? Or men who do not take care of the children they father?

I think that if a man does not marry and have children, he may be thought of as eccentric or not quite grown up, but he does not get the hatred that women without children get. I ask my few male friends who are unmarried with no children: do you get a lot of flak for this?

But then we come to the real problem with this country. Wait for it.

Catless men. Men without cats. Men who have all the resources it would take to make a loving, happy home for felines, who for some horribly selfish reason do not.

Now perhaps they have a dog. I respect that. Dogs are great. But dogs often like cats, so having a dog is no excuse for being a catless man. One of my good friends recently sent me an adorable picture of him snuggled up with both his large cat and large dog. The animals adore his young daughter too. The purrfect American family!

I have written at length on how cat fathers are the best men around. They clearly understand how to love a being they can not control. They adapt their lives to the furry ones and provide all that is needed. Whether it is playing with a laser pointer or recognizing that you can not move from a chair because there is a cat in your lap, cat fathers make life wonderful for their furry children.

“Do not come between a woman and her cat,” said a wise man of my acquaintance. He is more of a dog person, but recognizes the importance of cats.

Men without children, I get it. You didn’t want kids either, or it just didn’t work out that way. But there is really no reason, unless you are deathly allergic, why you can’t get a cat. Suddenly you will have meaning and purrpose in your life that you never felt before! There is nothing like the smell of fresh kitty litter in a beautifully cleaned box to make you know you have a reason to be on this earth.

Go for it. Get thee to the nearest cat shelter. Make the application. Get to know the cats and ask the volunteers for one that will suit your lifestyle. A lap cat if you work from home… two more active cats if you are out a lot or have kids. Children love cats and the most well-adjusted adults grew up in homes with cats. When you learn not to pull a cat’s tail, you have mastered much of what it takes to survive in this world.

May the Cat Goddess continue to bless all those wonderful cat dads out there. We think you are paw-some!