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This isn't an all out rant, just something that piques my interest and makes me raise my eyebrows on occasion.
A while ago, someone on this board started a thread titled "How Dare You Not Want to Spawn!" In this thread, people who have chosen not to be parents shared grievances about being pestered over their choices. This is perfectly understandable, since we all want to be treated like responsible, sentient adults who can make our own decisions with good judgment. In fact, I was able to identify with many of the people who responded to that thread, since I, too, have pretty much decided that I am not going to have kids.
Other people who have chosen not to have kids have banded together and formed groups. A Google search will turn up several message boards, web sites, and possibly some blogs centered around this decision. Some of them call themselves "Childless by Choice." Others call themselves "Childfree." This gets to the part that sometimes gets to me.
There seems to be this sentiment among many of these people that they are doing something new and trend-setting that no one else has ever done before. In other words, many of them appear to think that willfully living your life as a childless married couple is something that people just started doing within the last ten years, when in fact, people have been doing it ever since contraception was invented. There are several couples in my family who have never had children (at their own choice), and almost all of them are baby boomers or older. My grandmother is friends with a woman in her 70s, and this woman never had children with her late husband to whom she had been married to for over forty years before he died. Though, to be fair, there are many die hard child-lovers who hold these same sentiments as well.
I know this probably sounds petty on my part, but this is something that really stands out to me. Granted, I'm speaking from my own biased viewpoint, since I did come from a family where several people have chosen not to have children. For this reason, this decision has always seemed natural and normal to me. I'm sure to someone who comes from a really large family where almost everyone has several kids, this decision might appear new and innovative.
A while ago, someone on this board started a thread titled "How Dare You Not Want to Spawn!" In this thread, people who have chosen not to be parents shared grievances about being pestered over their choices. This is perfectly understandable, since we all want to be treated like responsible, sentient adults who can make our own decisions with good judgment. In fact, I was able to identify with many of the people who responded to that thread, since I, too, have pretty much decided that I am not going to have kids.
Other people who have chosen not to have kids have banded together and formed groups. A Google search will turn up several message boards, web sites, and possibly some blogs centered around this decision. Some of them call themselves "Childless by Choice." Others call themselves "Childfree." This gets to the part that sometimes gets to me.
There seems to be this sentiment among many of these people that they are doing something new and trend-setting that no one else has ever done before. In other words, many of them appear to think that willfully living your life as a childless married couple is something that people just started doing within the last ten years, when in fact, people have been doing it ever since contraception was invented. There are several couples in my family who have never had children (at their own choice), and almost all of them are baby boomers or older. My grandmother is friends with a woman in her 70s, and this woman never had children with her late husband to whom she had been married to for over forty years before he died. Though, to be fair, there are many die hard child-lovers who hold these same sentiments as well.
I know this probably sounds petty on my part, but this is something that really stands out to me. Granted, I'm speaking from my own biased viewpoint, since I did come from a family where several people have chosen not to have children. For this reason, this decision has always seemed natural and normal to me. I'm sure to someone who comes from a really large family where almost everyone has several kids, this decision might appear new and innovative.
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