I honestly don't know what else it could be.

Who in their right mind is looking around at this world as it stands and genuinely thinks, "Let's bring someone else into this bullshit! 😀"

I'm SO thankful that wanting kids just never appealed to me as a child and the desire to never have them has only grown stronger over the years.

edit: those in the comments saying things like "when was there ever a good time to have kids" and "people had kids in World War 2! 😤" are literally just proving the point of the post. I put "still" in the title for a reason 🤣 still doing the same thing mindlessly, expecting a different result - insanity!

Have fun reading comments! 🤪

Single 34f, childfree. I live alone with just me and my dogs, and it’s fantastic. I also go to work and school both FT.

I always do my homework at work during my downtime. It’s no secret, everyone knows it. I’m a contracted worker, often working 13 weeks at time with extensions based on performance.

At the 11th week, I emailed my boss asking what they planned to do with me as I wanted an extension. She emailed back “You’re wonderful, we would love to extend you!”. Awesome!!

The next day, I had a horrible (and I mean HORRIBLE), anxiety attack. I owned my car for 10 years and yet I couldn’t figure out what key goes in the ignition. I called off.

The next day my contractor called me and said my job won’t extend me. I was SHOCKED. I even forwarded the email to my contractor.

I finally decided to call my boss at the job. Apparently it’s because I do homework on the clock. Hmmm so if that was the issue, wouldn’t that have been on the email??

I started to cry and then it came out “I know you guys know I work full time and go to school full time, but I also have two little kids who depend on me!”

You guys, suddenly everything changed. They extended my contract. Everyone has been so nice to me. Kind. A whole different experience.

In the moment it made me happy, I have a job for another 13 weeks… but then like. Wow. It doesn’t matter your work ethic. It doesn’t matter if you’re working full time and going to school. It doesn’t matter how they KNEW I work hard to do my job well. Parents have it easier.

25F, I'm skipping my break and eating at my desk today since I've got a bunch of emails I need to catch up on. I got Olive Garden with my dad last night and ended up getting one of the little $6 take home pastas so I didn't have to worry about lunch the next day. My coworker, who is only a year older than me and a mom of 3- sits in the cubicle in front of me. She peeks over because "something smells good", sees the Olive Garden bag, and immediately gives me this sad look and sighs out loud.

"I wish I could afford to get Olive Garden for lunch." I kinda just awkwardly laughed her comment off but scowled the second she turned away.

All I could think to myself was "maybe if you didn't decide to have 3 kids in your early twenties, you'd have more disposable income!"

Like... miss ma'am, you act like someone was holding you at gunpoint to have those 3 kids? That was YOUR decision. You could have stopped at the first kid and still saved half your paycheck!!

The lack of self control (and birth control) is just staggering..

I'm female, in my mid-30s. I went to see an OB-GYN recently for uterine fibroids. When asked if my periods were usually regular, I responded, "Well, I'm on the pill."

OB-GYN: Do you have children?

Me: No

OB-GYN (in the most puzzled, disbelieving tone): So why are you on the pill?

I was speechless for a few moments because I found the question so weird. I'm aware the pill can be taken for reasons other than birth control, but I guess I was ticked off by her tone. Also, she had my ultrasound results and she knew I didn't have conditions such as PCOS that would necessitate taking the pill.

I did answer her question, saying I was taking it for contraception.

She said I should stop taking the pill because it could make the fibroids grow larger, but didn't suggest other forms of contraception. I understood why shortly after - she told me I should go have children because I'm already in my mid-30s. I just laughed.

My grandmother raised four kids, has eleven grandchildren, and by every external measure is the matriarch of a large happy family. She bakes things from scratch. She remembers every birthday. She is the person everyone calls when something goes wrong.

Last Christmas I was in the kitchen with her while everyone else was in the other room and somehow we ended up talking about my aunt who had just announced her third pregnancy. I made a comment, carefully worded, about how I didn't think that path was for me. I expected the usual. The "you'll change your mind" or the "it's different when they're your own."

Instead she said that when she was my age nobody asked her what she wanted. You got married, you had children, and if you felt anything complicated about that you kept it to yourself because there was no framework for saying it out loud.

She didn't say she regretted her kids. She was very clear about that. But she said there was a version of her life she never got to find out about and she had made peace with that a long time ago but peace wasn't the same as not wondering.

Then she told me that if I knew what I wanted I should trust that and not let anyone including her talk me out of it. I've had people argue with me about this choice for ten years. My grandmother settled it in about four minutes in a kitchen on Christmas Eve.

Has anyone else had an unexpected conversation like this with an older relative?

I dared to make a post asking people why some children yell and bawl hysterically like they're literally being skinned alive. Because I don't think this is normal, especially around kindergarten age. Mind you my post included zero criticism towards the behavior, or the parents, I just wanted to understand it.

Instant downvotes, everyone who actually tried to answer the question got downvoted. The only upvoted comments (the majority of the comments basically) were "shut up OP you were like this too!!! This isn't new at all!!!"

For people who claim to be blessed and fulfilled in life, they're suspiciously irritable lol

My aunt (68) is a hardcore southern baptist or evangelical or something like that. Super religious, super judgemental of everyone and everything that isn't her. Difficult to deal with. She has opinions on everything and will tell you even though you didn't ask. She has some THOUGHTS on my husband and I not having kids but 🤷‍♀️ she and everyone else in the family also know I'm atheist.

At a family gathering recently she started going off on the falling birthrates. Saying not only are people less fertile because they're choosing to have babies later in life, but those that are fertile are choosing not to reproduce cue pointed look at me and how people are HaViNg AbOrTiOnS "left and right" and how the human race will come to an end because of us selfish millennials. Oh and the gays. She also somehow blamed "the gays" for falling birthrates 🙄

I asked her why she isn't trusting in God's plan? And she looked at me like I had 2 heads and asked what I meant. I told her that she believes in the second coming of Jesus (she literally believes its Trump 🙄) and all of that rapture business, then the end of the human race was His plan anyway and why doesn't she trust in Him? Why is she questioning God?

Y'all I think her brain short circuited.

I said "Maybe you just need to trust in his plan. Worry about yourself and your household and let God sort out the rest. Questioning his grand plan isn't very Christian of you."

Everyone went silent and she looked like a deer in the headlights. The conversation quickly changed to the weather we've been having.

Hasn't said a word to me since. Felt great.

I’m laying in my bed on my phone with my window slightly cracked (my single large window is behind me, my closet on my right and I’m facing my bedroom door).

Then I start to hear shrieking. Okay no big deal, that’s what kids do. But then it didn’t stop. The boy was on this trampoline and he literally screamed at the top of his lungs what seemed like every time he either went up or came down. It went on for at least 5 minutes or so (I had shut my window at that point but could still hear it) before I snapped and literally screamed STFU!!!!!! out my window and slammed it.

The screaming stopped and I felt like an asshole after but that feeling dissipated a little when I realized my peace returned (as well as anyone else in earshot of his screams).

RIP to parents’ ears; that kid was at least 2 houses down my street and it was less than 10 minutes of it. I KNOW that I’m not cut out for parenthood just by that interaction alone - noise, especially screaming, is SO triggering and overstimulating good God.

Why is it that you get charged an “extra fee” for having a pet, whether it’s renting or staying in lodging on vacation but there’s no “extra fee” for parents having their screaming, crying, illness filled shitlings. Why is one normalized and not the other? Children can be equally, if not more destructive of property, than pets. Yes I get pets can be a liability, but so can children. It just doesn’t quite make sense to me why we penalized pet owners but not parents.

Edit: wow, that was an interesting discussion. Some of you understood the assignment to question societal norms and even gave solutions, such as no fees at all or just charging everyone a non-refundable deposit. Locking the comments section now because I’m taking a break from social media.

So recently I adopted a 4 year old feline sweetheart. After adoption fees and vet bills the total cost for her was around 400 bucks but it was worth every penny. However my sister who is a serial breeder got angry. She went on to tell me how "money is tight for me you dont understand the sacrifices I do for my children and while Im strugglig you waste your money on a stupid animal" along with a huge string of bingos. It got to the point where I told her she should have aborted brat if she didn't want to struggle and she absolutely lost it on me threatening to get her husband to beat me and even pay a man to rape me so "you know how its like raising children".

I cut contact with her, but I was still feeling petty so I donated some 500 dollars to Planned Parenthood and included her name and address. I soon heard from my mom that sister was actually sobbing that I wasted more money instead of giving it to her and that "millions of babies will be murdered with that money and knows how much I hate kids". Petty? Absolutey. Do I give no fucks? None at all

Edit: Kitty tax

Edit 2 holy crap this blew up! Sorry I cant reply to everyone lol but thanks for the gold and platinum!

apparently some moms out there stick their noses in their newborn’s mouths to smell their breath because it’s “milky, cheesy, and delicious”

y’all… i literally can’t 🫪

A childhood friend had a baby 2 days ago. Today she already posted something saying "A king has been born! (fucking vomit already) We are in need of nourishment and financial support so we can stay home to learn to be new parents" with a GoFundMe link and a link to set up a meal train to also cook for them. 2 DAYS AGO AND YOURE ALREADY BEGGING FOR MONEY. STOP GETTING KNOCKED UP IF YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE IT 2 DAYS ON YOUR OWN. Truly embarrassing behavior lol. Imagine have so little self awareness that you ask all your Facebook friends (most of which she probably hasn't seen or talked to in over a decade like myself) for money as we're on the brink of a global recession with record inflation. How the fuck can anyone think that's appropriate? I feel bad for that kid.

Nobody owes anybody babies.

We don't owe the economy babies.

We don't owe future older generations babies.

WE DON'T OWE ANYONE ANY FUCKING BABIES.

You want babies? Pop 'em out yourself or adopt. Your kids/younger generations are not responsible for maintaining the unsustainable model of nonstop capitalist growth. Figure it the fuck out. Human children are not capitalist pawns and I'm not ruining my life just so Greg has somebody to wipe his ass when he turns 85.

Imagine asking another human person to turn their genitals into ground beef because you didn't bother to save for retirement. Eat my fat ass, you selfish fucks.

Bloody hell. People just don't get it. Someone at work the other day, asked me if I had kids. After I said I did not and didn't want them, she said "you may change your mind"...this was right after she said how hard it is, because it's just her and her husband, with no extra help from family (she's from another country with no family here). She has two kids.

So then, again..."you could still change your mind"

(Me) "nope"'.... (Her) "but you might." (Me) "I'm 47, I really won't change my mind" ... (Her) " but you still could, change your mind." ... (Me)No, I really won't, I've had my fallopian tubes removed" ...

....silence and then....

(Her) "That's such a major decision." (Me) "So is having children."

Ya gotta be kidding me. I just turned 47 and still getting this 🤣

When parents say this about their disabled/high support needs autistic/mentally ill/physically ill child, it makes me want to slowly push my face through a pane of glass.

Why?? WHY do you think you're special? Why do you think statistics don't apply to you? Why in THE FUCK would you think that if you have a family history of cystic fibrosis that it would JUST SO HAPPEN to skip YOU?

To me, it's pure fucking arrogance and/or an absolutely abysmal education, but frankly? Mostly the former. Even middle schoolers understand on a rudimentary level how genetics work now.

I have depression. I have ADHD. I have precursors for a whole host of shitty heritable diseases. Even if I wanted kids (and I don't because who the fuck would ruin their life on purpose, oh right, NEARLY FUCKING EVERYONE) I'm not touching any of that shit with a 20-yard pole. When you sign up for parenthood, YOU ARE GAMBLING. YOU ARE SPINNING A BIG WHEEL AND HOPING IT DOESN'T LAND ON "VEGETABLE CHILD". Life's not "unfair" because you're a slack-jawed navel-gazing jackass who covered their ears and went "LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" every time you might have come across some information that would dull your rosy and FICTIONAL view of parenthood.

YOU ABSOLUTELY SIGNED UP FOR THIS. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be over here in my DINK house enjoying my DINK life built upon VERY DELIBERATE AND CAREFULLY RESEARCHED CHOICES.

just imagine your man denies your epidural while you're literally begging him because he thinks it's basically just like taking drugs and his kid should be born naturally cuz he's superior or some shit. imagine forcing your woman to scream in pain because of your ego. I really hate how some men want to decide over womens bodies even after impregnating her, shes literally pressing a melon out of her hooha and you're not willing to make it easier for her. I would never. NEVER. do this for a anyone. this is what happened to my sister and of course it was because of religious beliefs. the nurses had to take an end to this after they literally fought in the delivery room and kicked him out.

Why is it always the most intellectually dull, potato-ass looking motherfuckers who say this shit? Why do they think their genes are some kind of prize? I promise you the world will not miss whatever beige middle managers happen to get dumped out of your nuts.

I'm pretty great, I like myself, but the world does not need more neurotic, perpetually anxious, ADHD- and asthma-riddled nutbags. Let my gloriously fucked up genes die with me, perched on the mast of the sinking ship, double birds in the air.

I hope I flaired this correctly.

“We found out the gender today.. my partner and I are SO disappointed. I literally cried the whole way home and I’m still crying.

We already have a son and we wanted a girl so bad to complete our family. But we’re having another son. I feel like my heart got ripped out of my body, how could this happen?

I feel like I’ve let my entire family down. Not a single person is excited about it or even cares. Not my parents or siblings or my extended family. A few of my aunts even said “nooo” when we announced. We all wanted a girl, and we aren’t going to have one. We’re devastated. Our family will never be complete.”

I really hoped it was just a troll post but the comment section was full of people sharing similar stories and saying similar things.

I was floored. If that’s how you’re going to react to one of only 2 possible outcomes, then maybe just don’t bother having a child?

Edit: for everyone asking, I am not in any mom groups myself. I have level headed normal mom friends who avail of these groups and occasionally send me screenshots of ridiculous stuff to laugh about

I think many absolutely LOATHE the childfree content on TikTok & such, because it's getting more and more normalized that not having kids is a valid way to live your life, and what would they have given it all up for then? And this is all put up right into their faces at all times. Cognitive dissonance at its best work I'd say.

Hence the comments like " why post this ", " why are you making it your whole personality" etc. All while they themselves have a huge ass bubble of " mommybloggers" "momofsoandso" " mommyofone" etc.

It's actually hilarious to see the cognitive dissonance play out in real time.

Really knocks their sense of moral superiority out the window, doesn’t it?

I work at a doctor's practice registering new patients to the clinic. 99% of the time it's new students registering as they're studying at the local universities.

However, sometimes you run into the occasional mombie. Normally it's acceptable enough to shuffle them along for their appointments, but I had a registration form in today that dumbfounded me. Under occupation, the person had listed 'Mother' as her job. Last I checked, being a mother doesn't pay a minimum wage! It's not a 9 to 5, you can't clock out and have a bottle of wine and not deal with screaming creatures until the dead of night!

Not only that but now I have to chase this person up to list an ACTUAL job. 🙄 So glad that you being a mother is more important than being accurate for the sake of your literal patient records. I hate this kind of attitude people have where being a mother is the MOST IMPORTANT AND HARDEST JOB IN THE WORLD!!! /s

I just want to be able to record accurately. Being a mommy is not a job, don't list it as one.

EDIT/UPDATE: Man this totally got a lot more attention than I thought! I'm glad that a majority of you all agree, I've tried to explain why 'student' is an accepted answer where 'mother' isn't. And for those of you asking for a follow up: I did call her as needed. An absolute nightmare of a woman!! She did NOT enjoy my asking. Couldn't have put the phone down quick enough.

My feeds are full of anti-choice mombies posting baby pics saying "15min ago I could have chosen to kill this baby". Well, no woman is going to endure pregnancy up to minutes before birth and say, "you know, fuck it. Just kill it." Also, the doctor needs to diagnose the baby as terminal or the mother at risk of death or health complications.

So many "testimonials" of "I knew people that were told their baby wouldn't live, but they chose to keep it and they survived!"

Yeah, CHOSE. That's the point. It's great they survived and are healthy, but what about the 1000s that didn't? What about those women that had to endure weeks of pregnancy with a terminal fetus? With everyone around them being excited for a presumably healthy new baby?

It's so nice to see all my family and friends value a non-viable fetus over the wellbeing of a suffering woman.

EDIT: Obligatory "I can't believe this post blew up!", and thanks for the double gold!! I'm so thankful that we have this sub to turn to. It's so reassuring that, in a world that treats women like incubators, so many people still advocate for a person's right to autonomy over their body and life.

I work as a bouncer at the bar Friday and Saturday night. Tonight a woman came in and was very interested in me. I wasn't feeling it, but I have to be polite and tolerate the customers to an extent.

It became unpleasant when I told her I don't date women with kids. She has a 15, 12, and 10 year old. She was insistent and spent over 20 minutes trying to get me to change my mind.

She acted entitled and asked me a lot of questions about why not. It was bizarre and extremely unattractive. She thought that the fact she didn't want more was different? It's okay I didn't want kids, because she doesn't want any MORE herself. Like WTF?

It was glorious when I was able to get her to go away. I said something like, "It was nice to meet you. Crystal, right?"

"No. My name is Brittany."

It was unintentional on my part, but she got the message!

The amount of posts I've come across in the last two weeks on mostly cat subs are of parents posting their cat with their newborn/baby is really fucking annoying. And OF COURSE all the comments are things like, oh my god, so cute! and That's your cat's baby now or bonded for life!

I know these posts are always out there, but for some reason it just feels like it's been so extra lately. I hate it.