[ SECRET POST #3196 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3196 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Hannibal]


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03. [repeat, Black Mirror]


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04.
[World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria]


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05.
[Sailor Moon]


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06.
[Silicon Valley]


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07.
[Time Masters: Vanishing Point and Aladdin]


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08.
[Floraverse]


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09.
[HTGAWM]













Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 045 secrets from Secret Submission Post #457.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/XBlUGbD.png

[wannabe_influential]

Well, regarding the accidental/unwanted pregnancy thing, sometimes people come to like their kids and decide to have another. For example, I was an unexpected accident, but my mom loves me and wanted to have more kids.

Not sure why they would try to have another if the first pregnancy was so dangerous, though.

[diet_poison]

I kinda suspect that people who want to write about people having kids want to write about more than one kid because they like the kids. Authors also seem to like characters having at least one son and at least one daughter, which I can admit I also like to see, myself, though there isn't really any good reason for it, other than maybe seeing how parents in different cultural situations would approach having kids of different genders.

Nothing wrong with single-kid families by any means, of course!

[(Anonymous)]

Lots of people think this way, even outside of fic.

I recently had a surprise baby with a pregnancy that turned out to be high risk and ended in an emergency c-section. Doesn't stop people from asking when I'm going to have my next.

[diet_poison]

I can see people asking if they don't know about the high risk/emergency C part, but if they do know...at the least it seems just kinda silly to ask; it's like assuming you want to go through all that again!

Hope you and your kid are doing well. :)

[ibbity]

I know people irl who had difficulty with their first kid and then went on to have more anyway. Some people just like kids and want several, either irl or in their fic.

[(Anonymous)]

Every time I've asked the, "Why more than one?" question IRL, the answer I've received has been, invariably, "But don't you think your kid would be lonely without a sibling?" Even my own parents said so, and I was already 10 when my sister was born so it's not like we ever really hung out. It seems to be a common opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

Assuming your relationship with your siblings is good, you'll probably appreciate having them around when you're 60, they're 50 and your parents are on the way out.

[(Anonymous)]

There's something to be said for having people with the same memories as you, but automatically assuming children are going to be friendly with each other seems ludicrous. I'm very close with mine and can't imagine my life without them, but I'd never use that as a reason to have a lot.

My actual reasoning for wanting 2-4? Because I love children. Because I want them around and want to play with them and be part of their lives. Not because I expect them to feel that way about each other.

I will say, though, sharing a room taught me more about sharing, compromise, and hard liover than anything else in my life to date. NO ONE touches bunny, and I NEVER touched crazy cat, but shirts and pants and school supplies and toys ended up all over.

[(Anonymous)]

sibling=somebody to fight with.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't like parentfic at all, so I'm pretty biased. But yeah, if my OTP are going to have a kid, I'd prefer they just have one. Partially because I'm big on the whole small families/population control thing and I wish so many people didn't have this idea that more kids is inherently better than less kids.

But also because I tend to feel like the character who bears the children gets turned into an uber-fertile, nurturing type for the purpose of the story. That's not always the case. And even when it is the case, there's nothing wrong with a character (or a real person) who's an uber-fertile, nurturing type. If that's what makes them feel fulfilled, then good for them. But as a woman who doesn't really want kids, and who was an only child, it's not something I relate to at all, and it's not a characterization I enjoy reading about.

So that's my personal preference.

However, I really can't criticize other fanfic writers who choose to make their ship have lots of kids, because that's their personal preference and it's just as legitimate as mine.

[(Anonymous)]

* fewer

+1

[(Anonymous)]

^

[(Anonymous)]

I love the pissed off expression on that baby's face.

Re: the no single kid thing, I haven't known many parents who wanted just one kid. My cousin got unexpectedly pregnant at a young age, got married and had another kid. She always wanted at least two kids, it's just that the first one came along earlier than planned.

[(Anonymous)]

FWIW, most people I know consider themselves "one and done." Some of them are only children themselves, so they know it's not this horrible thing that "the kid will never learn to share" or whatever BS people say about why you should have multiple kids; some of them have several siblings and while have a good relationship with them, don't have this "magical sibling relationship" that some people imagine. Some had really difficult pregnancies, some had super easy pregnancies. (One woman I know had one kid, confirmed with her spouse they were done, she had her tubes tied, but she'd had such easy pregnancy that she became a surrogate for gay couples looking to have a baby, so she got lots of strange looks like "Oh, yeah, I'm pregnant, but no it's not mine or my husband's.") Even my own mom was like "I never really wanted kids, but your father did, and so it wasn't particularly traumatic for me to have the emergency hysterectomy. But I was glad you turned out cool, because it would have sucked to both not want a kid, ended up divorced within a year of having the kid, and get an annoying kid."

It's not to say I don't know people who want more: One woman I used to work with (now a SAHM) is like "yeah, two, or maaaaaybe three if it takes a while to get one of each," my BFF (who has two older siblings, but they're 15 and 18 years older than her, so it was largely like being a single child) were talking about The Duggars, and she was like "I want a big family that I didn't really have growing up, but yeesh, I want like six kids, not 20." (She has three, several mutual friends have been like "Have you explained how birth control works to her?" I told my mother about the six kids, and her reaction was "But for the love of all that is holy, WHY would anyone want six kids? Are they going to start a farm and need the free labor?"). And one friend has three kids, saying "I feel like it's our duty as smart people to try to out-populate the stupid people."

[elaminator]

I don't think it's so much that people believe there's anything wrong with having just one child (that would be dumb) as much as it is that people who write kidfic tend to like them and want to include more of them in their stories. Maybe some of them come for big families and like and are familiar with that dynamic, or maybe on the flip-side they come from a small family and are fascinated at the thought of an experience so opposite their own. There's many reasons someone might choose to write that.

I have a friend whose first child was a surprise pregnancy, and she went on to have two more kids. I would not be surprised if she had another; some people do realize they love kids and want more, though it is just as possible for someone to have one and go, "I think this is it for me."

Hell, maybe they just feel the characters would embrace having a big family.

I certainly don't think that's always the case, but whatever their reasons I don't think it matters.

Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of kidfic in general; if I know or feel that the characters would want children then maybe I'll enjoy reading about it, but in most cases I'll read just about anything else with more enthusiasm.

That said, I hope you find some fic that suits your taste! (Because I know how annoying it is when you can't.)

[(Anonymous)]

some people do realize they love kids and want more, though it is just as possible for someone to have one and go, "I think this is it for me."

I don't know about OP, but I think part of what annoys me is that it's so rarely the latter in fanfic. It's set up as an option, but it's almost never that option that's chosen. I actually can't think of a single time when the characters went, "Nah, we're good with just one."

I feel the same about characters who decide not to have kids at all. It hardly ever happens that the characters make an active choice not to, and stick to that choice, and feel good about it.

The very worst, though, is "knocked up" stories, where it's really common to have the character consider having an abortion, but it's almost non-existent for them to actually get one.

The inadvertent message that ends up forming out of all these fics is basically that happy, loving couples always have the baby. And happy, loving couples always discover they want kids after all. And happy, loving couples almost always want more kids after they have the first one.

It's like getting flicked between the eyes: not a big deal at first, but after a couple hundred repetitions it starts to make one feel ragey.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not opposed to characters having kids, providing that I can picture the character as being the type who would want kids and be a good parent to them. Here's a hint: while I have no doubt that Jack Sparrow has a few bastards running around (dude regularly frequents prostitutes), I doubt that he would suddenly turn into Ward Cleaver upon finding out that he has a kid.

Though I really wish they would also learn that pregnancy is rough and the more babies involved, the rougher it is. There's a reason that most people consider the McCaughey Septuplets to be incredibly lucky in that all of them actually survived.

Also, I really wish I could punch out whoever started the "If they don't have both strands of your couple's DNA, they're not your real kid" meme. Because people are able of loving adopted kids even if they didn't squeeze them out themselves. It'd be nice if more people who write slash fiction would take that sort of thing into account, have said couple consider whether to seek out artificial insemination (if it's a lesbian couple) or seek out a surrogate (works for both Gay or Lesbian couples) or even :gasp: adopt a child who has no genetic connection to either of them. Granted, regarding the last one, many states still have laws against gays adopting, so I'd understand if they leave that option out. But seriously, I'd rather fanfic writers mention some of the other options rather than coming up with convoluted explanations for MPregs.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry, OP. I'm one of those authors who have characters I love breed like bunnies.

For me, it's wish fulfillment. I come from a large family on my Mom's side. I wanted 4-5 kids of my own. Unfortunately, due to an unfortunate accident that left me with brain damage, I know I am not capable of taking care of even one child. I don't even feel capable enough to take care of a pet.

So, since I can't have those kids I wanted so dearly, my favorite characters get to have them instead. :)

Just giving a perspective from the other side of the coin. I have absolutely no problem with one-child families. If they're happy with one or none, good for them!

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP, but I'm sorry too, anon. I'll try to keep people with your experience in mind in the future.

I don't want kids myself, but I know very well what it's like to want one of these Important Life Experiences and to just not be able to have it, ever. It's probably the main reason why I read fanfic, myself. To get as much second hand fulfillment of that desire as I can.

So yeah, if happy, happy parentfic with eight babies is what does it for you, rock on.

[(Anonymous)]

100% agreed

[(Anonymous)]

I don't enjoy stories where my OTP has kids anyway so... But I guess I wouldn't mind if they had just one I guess. No more than that, though.

I think that there are a few things that feed into this.

[(Anonymous)]

First, a passel of fictional kids is lot easier to deal with than the reality, especially if you're only writing them into an epilogue. Second, there are a lot of canons with single children, so giving them more than one can establish that things are different (also more children can imply stability, of the situation or the character - not always, but sometimes). Third, I've known some people that grew up as only children and really wanted to have a lot of kids, which sometimes changed after having one (but really I've also known only children who wanted one or none and people with a lot of siblings who wanted a lot, or one, or none, so you can't ever really tell).

[iggy]

Yeah I don't get why fictional characters/fanfiction writers are obsessed with couples having SO MANY kids. It becomes a turn off for me as a reader when it exceeds three, and I'd prefer two or under. I don't know why. It's just a thing for me.

[(Anonymous)]

(random anon)

When they have more than five kids, it turns from "cute" into a "horror story" for me, especially if the children are close to each other in age (usually the case in fics) and the mother (or the mpreged guy) just stays home and focuses on the kids 100% of the time, with like 50% of the time being pregnant, etc. *shudders* I apparently have some limits. And issues ;)