You’ll feel differently when you have your own.
Yeah, no, fuck off. From medical professionals telling me that I would change my mind (unlikely, Dr. F., but you do realise there’s this thing called adoption, right?) to mommies raving on about the awesome oxytocin hit (you do realise that if I ever get that desperate, it’s cheaper and easier just to do drugs, yes?), people assuming that I just needed to meet the right man, and was making excuses (no, not that lacking in anyone in my life, thanks), that I was just naive (no, just realistic about my personality and the fact that based on my experience with kids, I don’t actually like them), and yes, somehow abandoning my “natural role” as a woman…
If there’s a biological alarm clock, I must be very good at ignoring it. Kittens are cute. Puppies are cute. Foals and calves and baby giraffes are cute. Babies… are not cute. I literally have to scroll-past baby pictures, sometimes, not because of any sense of regret, but the messy, drooly shots that everyone else cries about being “the cutest thing ever” literally turn my stomach.
But I am also old enough to be confident enough to say to anyone that has a problem with that: “kiss my ass”. And I will fight to defend a person’s choices in that matter – pro-choice to me goes beyond abortion. Abortion is part of it, but the bigger problem is the parental mandate in our culture.
And I got lucky. Neither my sister or I decided to have kids, and our parents are okay with that. I want to rage every time I hear someone say “I can’t wait until I am a grandparent,” and cry when someone talks about the pressures from parents and in-laws “to give us grandchildren.”
Quite the rant, and I apologise, but this is one of those topics that is guaranteed to set me off. Possibly because the opportunity to say these things and not be treated as a monster or a traitor to my sex/race*/species is rare.
*Why, yes, I have been told that white people are in danger of becoming extinct and that I am not helping. To which I say: if you think I am going to have kids to save the “white race” you are out of your godsdamned bloody fucking mind. And jump off a fucking bridge while you’re at it, assholes. Preferably a high one.