My husband and I have been married for almost a year, and we aren't going to have children. We met on the internet in 2007, and being childfree was one of the things that brought us together.
Surprisingly, people here have been really cool about it, even though it seems like everyone in Utah has or wants to have six kids. (I know it isn't true though; all the bakers we had at work over the holiday season don't want anything to do with kids, which is why we got along so well.) The only person who's really given us any grief over it is my father-in-law. He's very conservative, but that's for another diary. I thought he'd all but given up on us finally, until we went out to dinner last weekend.
"You guys should just make one kid!" he says.
"Why?" I said.
"For the universe!" he said.
"The universe gives no fucks!" I said. Really, that has got to be the stupidest bingo I've personally heard yet.
We both said how we have no genetic material that is worth passing on. I'm diabetic and also have issues with depression and bad skin and pregnancy would likely kill me. My husband is bipolar and has a sleep disorder. There's nothing special about us genetically.
I'm not religious. Scientifically speaking, the universe doesn't give two shits whether or not the human race survives. We've already left evidence in outer space of our existence and that's good enough for me. My father-in-law is of course LDS, but also into astronomy and science and is a brilliant musician with perfect pitch. His cognitive dissonance just baffles me.
There are other reasons we don't want kids, of course. Even if we wanted one it would be financial suicide; it now costs a quarter million dollars to raise just one kid, and that's not even including college. Overpopulation and climate change are other important factors. I think it would be cruel to inflict a child with all the shit this world is going through and about to go through.
Is there anything more obnoxious than a (male) Boomer telling me what to do with my body (Gross!!)? I doubt it. As much as conservatives love to bleat about freedom of choice, with them it's never about what YOU want, it's only about what THEY want and your well-thought-out arguments don't matter.
Whatever. We have two cats; one or two more would be nice, but we don't have the space for any more right now. We're perfectly happy being cat mommy and daddy. We also have a five year old nephew, my husband's sister's kid, and we love him and he gets so excited to see us. My husband says I'm basically Slappy Squirrel and he's Skippy (for those of you who remember Animaniacs).
I've been lucky in that I haven't had a lot of people haranguing me about breeding. In a few more years I'll be past the healthy reproductive age; maybe by then my father-in-law will get the message.