Member-only story
I do not want to have kids. Do you?
Have you ever met those sympathetic gazes when you say “I do not want to have kids”? The types that likely want to say “Did you experience any type of child abuse?” or “Did you grow up in an unhappy family?”
Have you ever gotten into those soul-drenching, anger-filled fights with your partners, who thought they could “fix” your point of view” — or I would like to call it that “You don’t know it yet, you will change when you get older” syndrome?
Have you ever encountered highly affirmative, innuendo questions about your sexual orientation like “Are you gay?” (totally lame, I know.)
If you have experienced one or all of them, me too. And I feel you.
Growing up, I always knew I did not want to have kids. What were the reasons, they asked. What were the reasons, I asked myself too. There were no childhood upbringings. I was being adored as the youngest child, raised by a deeply-in-love, well-educated and well-off financially couple. There are no current issues. I am genetically healthy, with no hereditary string of mutation in sight. I am mentally secure and financially stable. And above all, I do like children and enjoy mothering a child. All the picture-perfect components of someone who can be a mother, I have it; but I simply do not want to.
