Guest Author - Previous BellaOnline Editor

The other day I found myself in the main office of my museum, because I had some photocopies to make. A particularly obnoxious person, who had caught me yawning on my way in that morning, asked me at the copier if I had “woken up yet.”

I told her I was tired because I had gotten a really bad leg cramp in the middle of the night that had woken me up, and I didn’t get much sleep after that.

“I used to get leg cramps when I was PREGNANT,” she said, in that hinting around tone that is so obvious it is anything BUT “hinting around.”

So I responded, “Oh God, I hope not!”

Which led to the ever popular, “So you and Chris really don’t want kids?”

I simply said, “Nope.”

She proceeded to tell me that her daughter doesn’t have any kids, and that she just really doesn’t like them, except for her nieces and nephews.

I didn’t really say anything back, but proceeded with my copying.

Then she turned to the other woman in the office and said, “Yup, my daughter doesn’t want any kids. Don’t you think that’s a little weird?”

AND I WAS STILL STANDING RIGHT THERE!

Instead of picking a fight with her, I finished what I was doing and left.

It got me thinking about all the people who have told me – to my face, anyway – that they respect my decision, people should choose what they want out of life, and on and on. And now I am wondering how much of that they really believe, and how much they were really covering up that they thought I was “weird”!

Well, there are more women and men who have chosen not to have children than ever before, and our numbers are growing every day. So if I am weird, there sure are a lot of other people out there who are weird with me.

Either way, my life is my life, and I really don’t care what the people I work with think about my choice. The important thing is that my husband and I agree.

And no one else matters.