What are some of the responses you give to people who ask why you don’t want children?

21 comments

1. I’d probably mistake it for a gremlin and kick it out the window or something.

2. I just tell them like it is: I don’t like children. It usually makes whoever asked awkward, or it makes them view me like a monster, and either one is fine as long as the topic or entire conversation ends. Not a loss with people who pry into private things that are absolutely none of their business.

3. Because I’m quite mentally ill and don’t want to put that shit on a kid.

   Because I don’t have a good reason to have one.

   Because I don’t want one, and I don’t think kids should have parents who resent them for existing.

   Because I’m disabled and can barely look after myself, let alone a kid.

   Because that’s none of your business.

   Because I don’t like kids enough to have one around 24/7.

   Because -gestures widely at everything-.

   In this economy?

   My bloodline ends with me.

4. I just tell them that children are not for me. I don’t mind children but I do not want them for myself. And often people don’t accept that answer and begins with the “you are going to regret it…. You will want them when you get older” and I just ignore them

5. I say; I prefer to spend my free time and money indulging myself. Or I don’t want to share my toys.

6. Don’t want them

   That’s the only answer needed

   For people closer to me I might explain that I understand the work it takes to raise children and it’s not something I want to do or take the time out of my life for. I tell my sister, that we’ve spent a lifetime doing the emotional lifting for our parents and I would like to spend the rest of my life focused on me and my emotional needs.

7. ‘I’ve managed to kill a cactus once. I don’t think I should be responsible for a human life.’

8. That’s a personal decision between myself and my spouse and I do not feel that it is appropriate to go into more detail publicly.

   My best way of saying that it isn’t really their business.

9. Dont want them to have the same mental illnesses as me.

10. I live in the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the imperial core.

    I love my unborn children too much to believe they deserve life on this world because I can see a brighter future that’s possible but not being pursued. (Solarpunk)

    I LOVE children and believe they deserve so much more how we treat them, they’re not even treated like whole people. If I have the urge and money to raise children, I’ll be looking at guardianship and fostering first.

11. Because I don’t want to raise another human being and be responsible for their life.

12. I say it’s just not for me. Simple and to the point. They move on, usually.

13. 1. God decided I shouldnt have kids, and who am to go against his wishes?

    2. I wanted kids but I couldn’t find them a good dad when I was younger, and now Im too tired to actually being a good mom.

    3. School system sucks.

    4. Im poor and I like to sleep.

    The most personal one is “I want kids but Im afraid of my mental health going to the drain, and/or suffering a miscarriage because of my hormonal issues.”

14. Question for question: imagine for at least 18 years being stuck with someone. They need your time, your money and your attention, and you just have to give it to them, no conditions, no way out, no calling quits and going home. And you might not even like that person! Why would I want to do that?

15. Why would I spend my own money to increase people count on my country?

16. I buckle down and prepare to defend my life choice for a minimum of thirty minutes to the maximum of 2 hours it takes of me listing off every reason I have with them becoming more and more offended with all of it culminating into them screaming my reasons back at me (as if I’m just mindlessly parroting words at them I have no clue as to their meanings and if they just repeat them back at me louder and angrier, it’ll snap something in me, snap me awake and I will be so offended by what they say (I was just on autopilot after all), I will jump up and angrily declare they have no idea what I am capable of and will run out to have a kid just to prove them wrong) because just saying “because” or “I just don’t want any” isn’t good enough.

17. Because it involves wholly creating a new person without their consent, it should be an enthusiastic opt in and not an opt out.

    People should be giving reasons why they *want* kids, not the other way around, since the future of a whole other person is involved. It would be in poor taste to take that lightly.

    Therefore I don’t need a reason other than “I just don’t want to.” I have other reasons, but usually if people are asking that specifically, they’re looking to disregard my reasons anyway.

18. I have better things to do.

    I am still a child myself

    I want to be a fun dad not a mom

    I dont want to put my physical and mental health through it

    I really dont have a support system and I would never leave them with my mother who is negligent at best and racist at the worst.

    I just dont find the appeal and I dont like kids much, I tolerate them for few hours at the max

    Frankly speaking it varies from time to time, and based on the person I give varied answers.

19. I don’t want children

    It’s not for us..

    I only want to be an aunt

20. I tell them it’s bad enough we’re going to have to live in a mad Max hellscape I don’t want my family having to kill others for water in 30 years.

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