[JoeAltmaier]

Sure, it takes all kinds. But for really caring about something, there's nothing like worrying the spike in white blood cells in your very ill child might be diagnosed as leukemia on Monday. After that, the rest becomes noise.

[mikestew]

But for really caring about something, there's nothing like worrying the spike in white blood cells in your very ill child might be diagnosed as leukemia on Monday.

Some folks are mature enough to develop empathy while completely child-free. Others must have it forced upon them via childbirth. It does, indeed, take all kinds.

[JoeAltmaier]

Maturing is due to experience. The snarky "forced upon" isn't a good description? It has to be learned regardless of the method. Hipster urbanites may have insulated themselves from emotional attachment to the point they're indeed less mature.

[fpig]

Simply not true in my experience. Most people in my country have children yet react strongly to completely irrelevant events like a team they "support" winning or especially losing a football game. That's way worse than complaining about someone ruining your fishing trip as it has nothing to do with them at all.

Pretty much all people care about stupid shit, you just don't empathize with people who care about things you don't personally care about.

[WorldMaker]

Even childless people will experience those sorts of "real cares" in the lives of people they care about (whether it is parents, grandparents, spouses, nieces/nephews, cousins, or even more less strictly well defined relationships). Painting all childless people as free from attachments is its own sort of naïve, even if their current problem of the day seems trivial to you, it certainly doesn't mean that every problem in their world doesn't meet your arbitrary "real" scope requirement to "grow up".