TonioTimeDaily

"1. Kids Are Expensive

In the first year alone, a parent can spend thousands of dollars as the sole provider in a small person’s life.

As years go by, diapers and bottles are replaced with school supplies and saving for higher education, if possible. It adds up.

There’s a reason tax forms consider children “dependents.”

For at least eighteen years (unless the they become legally emancipated), children rely on their parents for all their needs. That doesn’t even include the fun, millenial trend of graduating college then moving back home with the parents.

Talk about a huge emotional and financial responsibility!

Between the expense and today’s economy, raising children is far from cheap. For some, it is flat-out unaffordable. I am in awe of all parents who make it work.

Child-rearing may not be how you want to spend your money. That is understandable.

Maybe you don’t want to bring new people into your family if you can’t afford to support them. That reasoning is beneficial to both you and a potential child, should you choose to have one.

Money is personal.

Decisions regarding our bodies and lives should be equally personal.

You choose how you spend your money. You choose what goes on with your body. You choose what you can in your way of life.

2. Complications Happen

Whenever my elders question why I do not want to have children, I think that they are conveniently ignoring some facts of life.

Some people cannot physically have children, have a medical history of reproductive health issues, and/or have miscarried. Fertility treatments are not 100% guaranteed to work, and they are expensive. You know what else is super-expensive? Hiring a surrogate.

Also, an idea often forgotten when it comes to baby-making: Not everyone has penis-in-vagina sex!

As a cisgender lesbian in a relationship with another cisgender woman, my sex life doesn’t include pregnancy prevention. I literally cannot have an “Oops Baby.”

In fact, if I wanted to have a child physically or through adoption, it would be a “Plan It Out and Lawyer Up Baby.”

Speaking of adoption, the U.S. process of application, home study, approval, matching, placement, and legalization is arduous for everyone, especially marginalized groups.

There are so many physiological, financial, and legal obstacles that can occur before a child enters a family. Some people know the risks and start families anyway, which speaks to their commitment.

If it’s not for you, though, that’s absolutely okay."

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