No, I don't want kids. Not now and not ever!

So many people seem amazed by the fact that my husband and I simply don't want children. They just can't wrap their mind around it. Society has conditioned us to believe that you grow up, get married and have kids. I try to explain a few of the many reasons why I don't want children and they try to talk me into it. 

I am 29 years old and I feel as though I reached the age of reason several years ago. There was a brief period of time in my late teens, maybe even early 20's, where I thought that I might have children some day. But I realized that everyone in my family had gotten married or had a baby before they were 25 years old. I had made up my mind that I was too young for such decisions and waited. I honestly believe that if more people gave it this much thought, there would be less parents in the world. After a few years I realized a few very important reasons why I don't want children.

• Sleep: My body just doesn't like functioning on less than 8 hours per night and I am not a morning person. I'm not necessarily grumpy or in a bad mood. I just have a really hard time getting up early, I always have. So the thought of getting up in the middle of the night to tend to a crying baby just isn't appealing.
• Free time: I have so many hobbies and already don't feel like there are enough hours in the day. I am just not willing to sacrifice the things that make me happy in life in order to "fulfill my duty to society". 
• Cost: I have a decent income but in an emergency I have to cut back on things. It takes a lot of money to raise a child, especially in this economy. Things have changed a lot in the past 50 years and it takes two people working full time to make a decent living without children.
• Safety: With the rising population there is a much higher percentage of crime now than when I was a kid. It just isn't as safe anymore. People are far less courteous to one another and refuse to take accountability for their own actions. There are so many out of control children, even if you try to bring your child up right they could be negatively influenced by their schoolmates. 
• Heartache: I am a very sensitive person. I worry about what people think and I can't handle confrontation. It's pretty much a given that at some point your child will disappoint you no matter how good of a parent you are, it just happens. And who knows how they talk about you to their friends. My heart just couldn't take that kind of pain from someone that close to me.
• Childcare: The thought of putting the life a child into the hands of a teenager babysitting on the weekends or a daycare worker is terrifying. I used to babysit, I know how easily distracted teenagers can be!

You may disagree with my reasoning and that's fine. I am not saying that you shouldn't have children, I am simply explaining that not everyone needs to have children. I believe that the bolded topics above are things everyone should think about prior to procreating. I also hope that someday there will be a way to control who can/can't have children. There are many people in the world that want children and would make great parents but can't have them and too many shitty parents that shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.