I feel very strongly about this. It’s so true. I feel as with marriage, you should only ever do it if you 100% want it. If you want it 99%, wait. If you want it 60%, you probably shouldn’t do it.

And with marriage, if you make a mistake you can get divorced. Once a baby is born, you can’t unmake it. It’s a person with needs, and you are a person with responsibility. And if you give up that responsibility, and ruin the child’s life as a result, you’re a bad person.

I have reservations about having kids. My only current reason to want them is “Mr Right would make such a great father and I’d love seeing how he develops as a man”. But that’s not enough of a reason. And there are so many reasons against it.

• genetic issues my partner and I have that might cause our child to be born disabled and/or predisposed to schizophrenia
• genetic issues that make childbirth more dangerous to me than the average person
• climate change and the uncertain state of the world
• having seen my loving parents grow apart after having kids until they divorced (don’t want that for myself and my partner)
• having many other things in my life that I’d rather focus on
• not really wanting the drudgery of parenthood

While I may change my mind and am open to it, for now, given my reservations, I am glad to be childfree.