Thanks everyone for your responses so far. It's been really nice to see where everyone is coming from. I would say that for me, as a kid, I couldn't ever fathom why any woman would want to go through pregnancy and childbirth and the ensuing lifetime of caring for that offspring. Like others on here have said, even as a teen and when I was in my early 20s, I was told that I would probably change my mind when I first started expressing the idea that I might never want to have kids. My DH & I are high-school sweethearts, having been together since I was 14 and he was 16, and we married when I was 23 and he was 25. It was simply amazing how many people started expecting us to pop out kids almost as soon as the wedding ceremony ended! I can't believe people would make those assumptions, but some do. Most friends/family know us well enough to know that we'll do what we think is best for us, and a lot of them said to wait a few years before thinking about kids, which I thought was a more refreshing, realistic perspective. I think that DH & I have gone back and forth over the years with each of us leaning more towards possibly having a kid than the other, but then last year, as we started to discuss it more, considering that we're both getting to that crucial decision time in our lives, I realized that I really don't want to have a kid. I don't like anything about how much it would change our way of life, and of course, my life would change drastically, because no matter how involved the father is, the majority of the work falls on the woman, as my mom has cautioned me in the past.
I have a friend who recently had a baby that she did not plan for or want to have. When she called me to vent about all of her frustrations (she is married, and her DH is great with the baby), I couldn't help but feel relieved that it wasn't me in her shoes. I hope that it never will be.
At this point, I think that I will stay on BC for the next few years (I've been on it since half-way through college, 10 years ago), but if we still feel the same way, which I think we will, something more permanent will need to be done once I reach the age of 35 or so. I love our kitties and feel that those little furbabies are all I will need to parent, and to me, the way I respond to animals is a huge indicator of how I feel. When I see cats, dogs, or many other types of animals, I go all mushy, but when I see a baby or a small child, I usually say something like "Cute", but then quickly move on. Kids just don't inspire me the way animals do.
