I think it’s acceptable as a joke, especially if you’re talking about your own crotch goblin, but using it to denigrate children and parenthood is what makes it cringe.

There are definitely times when I feel mine is a full-on goblin. It’s like 70% of the awake time at home in fact. Maybe down to 60% now, it’s now sometimes a very clumsy roomba instead.

Eh, it’s more of a reactionary response to the societal pressure to have children, mixed with the absolute gall a small fraction of parents have to not raise their children properly, using them as a prop to behave badly.

In the last decades i have seen both of these things, and also this mindset become less pronounced. I’d say that comes with the fact that we all are getting priced out of having children, and those who have them are a lot more likely to actually have a gameplan regarding parenthood.

Regardless of the actual reality, whenever I see that phrase used, I imagine the poster as a 40 yo morbidity obese dude with thinning, greasy hair and a pony tail who works in IT and plays Warhammer 4 nights a week

I wander into those places now and again, the amount of toxic jargon is concerning