Monday, March 25, 2013

Why judge me for MY choices just because they are different than yours?

The other day I was watching the Wendy Williams show and they were discussing Jen Kirkman's book I can barely take care of myself and women who chose not to have children.

I made this decision for myself, long before I became an adult. I knew as a little girl I did not want children. When all of my friends were getting together playing house, I wanted to be the business woman who went off to work.  Raising children was just never something I wanted for myself.  

Of course my own childhood experience has a lot to do with my personal choice to not have children, mainly I don't want to be the reason any other child looks at my biological family and says, "what's wrong with these people and how was I born into this?" or wonder why their own biological family were so selfish and did not care for them. 

I have always been proud of the fact that I am able to recognize the fact that I don't want children and be responsible enough to follow through on this desire and not have any "accidents" when there are so many people out there having baby after baby who can't afford them or are not good parents to them because they never really wanted them in the first place.

It's hard a child to be raised in a home where they know they are not really wanted or where the way of life is in poverty or abused and neglected. These things write on the slate of who that child is to become and often does not help them have a great start into life. Now that I am older and have more life experience I realize there are many things I missed out on that would have helped me have a more successful or full life if only I had known about opportunities or had someone to help me along the way.

Instead of people viewing my choice to not have children as responsible and unselfish they say things like, "but what grandchildren when you are older", "you would make a good mother", or "but our kids could grow up together" and to me these just are not good enough reasons. 

Why is society still so biased when it comes to women who choose not to have children?