I'm asexual. I have no kids, and no biological drive to have any. Ever. (If it was gonna happen, it should have by now, given I am over 30.) I really, honestly, have zero drive in that respect. I don't hate children, but I have no wish to ever have any either, and would prefer to not have to deal with other people's children.
That having been said, no, "I don't get parent-hood". I doubt I ever will, given the circumstances. But, on the converse-side of that argument, I feel it is important that people who have had their brains rewired by the procreation process should be mindful of the fact that they
have indeed, been rewired, and that because this is so, they do not hold a neutral or logical opinion in the matter.
What that means? It means not everyone thinks children are adorable things that need to be protected at all costs by society and to the self, as that behavior comes from being so rewired. I really don't find your children to be at all adorable, and hold that they are really only important to you and the rest of your family. Please don't show me pictures.
So, while you take exception to the enthusiasm I and others may exhibit toward this development, remember that others will and do take exception to the hubris that parentally minded people exhibit when they bull their way in society concerning children and child wellfare. I litterally am starting to outright hate the way people's brains shut down completely when the phrase "won't somebody think of the children!?" Gets uttered. Seriously, there is the ASPCC, and laws concerning the wellfare of children already. Anything else is the sole discretionary domain of the parent. (If the parent wants to let jr drink vodka and coke, let THEM deal with the premature brain damage and low adult intelligence of their offspring. The fact that your brains have been chemically reprogrammed is not justificaton for tyrrany by the maority. The children have been thought about ENOUGH. Please think about everyone and everything else BESIDES the children.
Basically, just because you are a parent, does not mean you hold some sacrosanct moral high ground with regard to children. It simply means your moral imperitives have been forcibly overwritten biochemically. Recognizing this fact will help you to be more rational, and less emotional. Rationality is what it means to be human. Blind emotionally based biochemical reactionism is what a momma bear does. Please aspire to be more than that as a parent. I don't mind that you have kids, or that you personally would attempt to move the foundations of the earth for their beneft. I understand that you have this instinctual impulse. What I do mind, is the biased assumption that because you are a parent, (and that I am not), that your sense of moral judgement is by default the correct one.
I wouldn't really go around squashing kids with minecarts. This is a game. Likewise, because this is a game, you should be able to rationalize this and overpower the parental instinct, and see the game for what it is: a rules based simulation. Moral aversion to certain inputs to the simulation is fine as long as you only subject yourself to those limits. Basically that would just be a house-rule. The issue comes when your "moral compass" is able to override your logical processing, and make you ascribe a personal predjudice against other people because they fail to obey
your house rules.
I really don't like how this paints me to look like a total douchebag, but really, if it were any other subject, it would appear as an absurd farce that it was even a serious issue! (It is my experience that few things are more 'serious' to parents than the wellfare of their children. If this had been over something like "animal cruelty" instead, the absurdity of fretting over the wellfare of "an ascii letter 'c'", that clearly is not alive and is incapable of feeling pain, the farce is revealed.) The major thing involved, is that real changes happen to people when they become parents, and that makes it serious business. That doesn't happen over mere personal preferences driving normal house rules (like "animal cruelty" considerations).
All I really want from people who have kids is that they be aware that while their reactions to certain stimuli involving children (and simulated children) are perfectly natural, they are NOT "perfectly rational", owing to this underlying set of neurological changes that transpire, and that they aspire to respond to such circumstances with more than blind animal-like protectionistic instincts. Afterall, they are HUMANS, not momma-bears. Please don't let your parental instincts turn off your brains.
This is a game. The baby masher does not mash actual babies. It removes an input from the game, using a novel mechanism, and the removal of that input can have very beneficial outcomes, if properly utilized. Please don't let your parental programming prevent you from rationally evaluating this situation in that capacity. Please don't engage in bloated hubris by asserting some de-facto highground, that clearly does not exist in rational cogitation, by attempting to brand people as baby-muderers for utilizing such a methodology. The endocrine system is very powerful, and requires constant vigillance to hold in check. It does not care about piddly things like "reality", and "logic". In the case of children and child wellfare, it hits below the belt, and causes you to think about the problem in irrational terms, like "what if that were MY baby!?" And "If he/she does that in a game, what would they do in real life!?" Nevermind that there is a growing body of evidence that could be used to draw useful corrolaries against, that show that what people do in video games has essentially no bearing whatsoever with what they do in real life. The endocrine system actively tries to push such rationality out of your mind, with pure emotional force. If the impulse you experience, in any circumstance, has those attributes, please choose to rationally evaluate the situation instead, by learning to recognize endocrine system's dirty dealings. (While I don't have children, I am no stranger to the wiles of the endocrine system. I combat it religiously, and have done so ever since learning that the human neocortex's primary function is to supress the endocrine system. That's right, the evolved ability to reason, plan aread, and higher executive abilities came about by natural selection to supress the endocrine response. Clearly, there is a real, objective, and profound evolutionary advantage to doing so, as the development of human intellectual ability is clearly and diagnostically a direct result of this function. (Look up phinneus gauge some time, for an exercise in what happens when humans lose this ability.) Failure to employ this system is failure to behave like a human, and reversion to animal behavioral norms. The ability to suppress irrational impulses and imperitives is STRICTLY human. Blindly following parental instincts like momma-bear is not. Please be Human.) The rest of humanity will be better off for it.
Thank you.