CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Introduction

40 GOOD REASONS NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN

1. The “desire for children”: A silly idea

2. Labour is torture

3. You avoid becoming a walking pacifier

4. You keep having fun

5. Rat race plus rugrats: No thanks!

6. You keep your friends

7. You won’t have to use that idiot language when talking to kids

8. Open the nursery, close the bedroom

9. Kids are the death of desire

10. Kids are the death knell of the couple

11. To be or to do: Don’t decide

12. “The child is a sort of vicious, innately cruel dwarf” (Michel Houellebecq)

13. Kids are conformists

14. Kids are a treasure, and will cost you one

15. Kids are unbiased allies of capitalism

16. A brain teaser: How to keep kids busy

17. The parent’s worst nightmares

18. Don’t be fooled by the “ideal child” illusion

19. Your kid will always disappoint you

20. The horror of becoming a merdeuf

21. Parent above all? No, thank you

22. Keep the experts at bay

23. The family: A horror

24. Don’t revert to childhood

25. It takes real courage to keep saying, “Me first”

26. Kids signal the end of your youthful dreams

27. You can’t stop yourself from wanting your kids to be happy

28. You can’t get away from your kids

29. Get used to it: School is a boot camp

30. “Raise” a child…but toward what?

31. Avoid benevolent neutrality like the plague

32. Parenthood is a sad, sweet song

33. Motherhood is a trap for women

34. Motherhood or success: Pick one

35. When the child appears, the father disappears

36. Today’s child is the perfect child: Welcome to the best of all possible worlds

37. Danger, child ahead

38. Why wear yourself out for a future that doesn’t include you?

39. There are too many children in the world

40. Reject the ten absurd commandments of the “good” parent

Conclusion

About the Author