I Don’t Want Kids — Stop Telling Me I will

The problem—as I see it, and I’m sure that many others who are reading this will, too—is that the expectation lies upon us to have kids. Never mind that the data shows that women are having kids later in life or that more and more women are simply choosing not to have kids. (Let me highlight the key word from that sentence: choosing.)

The traditional model of the perfect family—a married man and woman and their 2.5 kids who live in a three bedroom, two bath ranch home with an attached garage in a quiet suburban neighborhood—continues to be as unrealistically pressed upon us as is the American Dream. 

Where we seem to have gone wrong is the assumption that this is (or should be) everyone’s dream. 

So where does that leave those of us who do not see our lives unfolding beneath this traditional model?