I’m not a baby machine

The older I get the more questions I get about when I’ll get married and have kids. It surprises me that in today’s world there is still this expectation that people will get married, move into a house with a white picket fence and have 2.5 kids.

The world just doesn’t happen that way anymore. For me, I don’t intend to get married or have kids. The idea of pregnancy and kids scares me quite a lot. I don’t understand how a ‘natural’ process for a woman can have so many side effects and consequences. We’ve (as people) been around so long now, why haven’t we adapted and evolved where babies are concerned? Why are our babies so large in comparison to say, a tigers?

The more and more I hear about pregnancy the more it repulses me. Morning sickness, hot flushes, nausea, stretch marks, cracked nipples, leaking nipples, etc. etc. The older I get the more exposed I am to pregnancy the more I hear about new, disgusting side effects of it. The words mucus plug makes me shudder.

And all of that for what? 18+ years of dependency. I think I am far to selfish for it all. I don’t want to have to think of someone else every waking hour. I just want to worry about me.

I think number one thing that frustrates me most about the apparent requirement that I have kids is that people who can’t have kids don’t understand. I am meant to show sympathy towards them and yet, if I were pregnant, I would be shunned for not being happy about it rather than it being acknowledged as pretty much my biggest fear.

What is your stance on babies and marriage? How does pregnancy make you feel?