And now there'll be no more Picards...

[RoJoHen]

Do you feel a responsibility to carry on your family line?

The youngest generation in my entire family consists of me, my brother, and my sister. We have no cousins on my father's side of the family.

My siblings and I have never really been ones for dating. My sister and I have each never been in a relationship, and my brother may or may not have had a girlfriend at some time (we're pretty sure he did, but we never met her, and he never talked about her). Just knowing my family, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the three of us were perpetually single for the rest of our lives. As an extension of that, it wouldn't surprise me if none of us ever had kids.

If that happened, my family line would end. It's a strange thing to think about. Generations and generations of people lived and died to lead to me. A part of me feels responsible for making sure the family continues and that the name lives on.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Thousands, millions of people share the same ancestors as you so the end of the line will only be for a few of you (your parents, siblings and you). Your grandprents line is probably continuing down a different branch.

 

[WillsBabe]

I'm adopted so I don't really know what my "family line" is. BTW, I thought this thread was announcing the death of Patrick Stewart... don't do that!

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm adopted so I don't really know what my "family line" is. BTW, I thought this thread was announcing the death of Patrick Stewart... don't do that!

I don't think Patrick Stewart is capable of dying.

I guess, thinking more about it, this whole family line thing is pretty archaic. Even if I did have kids, what if they were all girls? They could get married and change their last names, and then my family line would end anyway!

 

[AFEK ESLCAFE W]

I don't think Patrick Stewart is capable of dying.

While the rest of the TNG cast clearly aged in between "Encounter at Farpoint" and Star Trek: Nemesis, Patrick Stewart is the only one who remained looking exactly the same.

No one is going to say 15 years later (or even 30 years now since Dune) "Is that you...Patrick?"

But, I can imagine that happening to Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner.

 

[Finn]

^ his baldness has to do with it...

 

[Amaris]

Yes, I do. I'm the oldest of two brothers by 7 years. I am single, my brother has a wife and two children. We can see how well that went.

 

[Kestra]

I'd feel weird if no one in my family had kids, but I don't feel obligated to have kids. They wouldn't have my maiden name anyway.

I definitely want some. I don't know if that will happen though because it's looking more and more like it might not be in the cards for me. But I know my brother and his wife want to have children. I doubt my sister ever will. She has no interest in being a mother, which simplifies a lot of things.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, my sister has a couple of kids, but if you're thinking in the old patriarchal terms that wouldn't count, since she changed her name. My brother, though, is married and will probably have kids since, like my sister, he likes living the "average" life.

I would never have kids, even if I decide to settle down with someone. Aside from age, I have never had any desire to raise kids, and I am too concerned about overpopulation to be talked into it.

 

[Tosk]

Do you feel a responsibility to carry on your family line?

Nope. It's just a name.

 

[cultcross]

I don't have a unique or interesting name so don't feel any need to continue it, and being adopted I do not know the genetic line I would carry on. In short, I feel little duty to 'continue the line'. I tend to see genealogy as a waste of time anyway, we who are largely geographically stationary are all extremely closely related back no further than, say, Georgian times. We're one big homogeneous gene pool, in many ways - it's partly why we suffer so much from genetic illness.

 

[Lord Garth]

There are only four people in the United States with my last name. So that answers that question.

I'll have kids but I'll be an older parent.

 

[TheBrew]

Yeah, but mostly because I want to. I can't really see my brother having kids and I am only now getting over the urge to castrate every boy who even thinks of looking at my sister.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Do you feel a responsibility to carry on your family line?

Not much of a responsibility, but a privilege. My family history is nothing to speak of (workers, carpenters, then farmers all the way down), but my family name comes presumably from Roman times, so I think it's kinda cool to have it. There are about 500 people with my last name in the world (most of them in Italy, plus a few in the US, and maybe some other places with a large Italian immigrant population), so I don't think there is really a risk of it becoming extinct in the near future. On the other hand, my father had no sibling and I am an only child, so if I don't have any offspring, my "line" will die with me.

I guess, thinking more about it, this whole family line thing is pretty archaic. Even if I did have kids, what if they were all girls? They could get married and change their last names, and then my family line would end anyway!

And this is why in civilized countries we don't make women change their name upon marriage.

(yes, it is a joke. note the )

 

[Deckerd]

I'm adopted so I don't really know what my "family line" is. BTW, I thought this thread was announcing the death of Patrick Stewart... don't do that!

I don't think Patrick Stewart is capable of dying.

I guess, thinking more about it, this whole family line thing is pretty archaic. Even if I did have kids, what if they were all girls? They could get married and change their last names, and then my family line would end anyway!

How very historical of you darling. I didn't take my husband's name and nor did most of my friends (take their husbands' names).

 

[trampledamage]

I'm adopted so I don't really know what my "family line" is. BTW, I thought this thread was announcing the death of Patrick Stewart... don't do that!

I don't think Patrick Stewart is capable of dying.

I guess, thinking more about it, this whole family line thing is pretty archaic. Even if I did have kids, what if they were all girls? They could get married and change their last names, and then my family line would end anyway!

How very historical of you darling. I didn't take my husband's name and nor did most of my friends (take their husbands' names).

Out of curiosity (and terribly impolite of me to ask, I know ) but whose surname do your kids have?

General question for those people from countries where the norm is for the woman to keep her own name - what surname do the children get?

 

[Deckerd]

My daughter took his name when she was at school but changed to my name as an adult.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Do you feel a responsibility to carry on your family line?

No.

I have nothing against my family, of course. But I simply don't want kids of my own, and that's that. I don't feel obligated to have kids just so there will be more people with my last name. And my dad (who is the other person alive with our family name) respects this. He wouldn't be angry with me if I didn't carry on the name. He knows I don't want kids and he has no problem with it. He wouldn't want me to have them out of a sense of obligation.

That being said: 1) I would not be averse to marrying a woman with kids, if they were old enough; and 2) I might even TAKE HER LAST NAME if I so desired.

 

[RandyS]

By no means. Becoming a father is not only the most irresponsible thing I could do, but it would be a crime far worse than anything Hitler and bin Laden did.

 

[Deckerd]

By no means. Becoming a father is not only the most irresponsible thing I could do, but it would be a crime far worse than anything Hitler and bin Laden did.

Self-aggrandize much?