This morning, as I read through the Buzzfeed and Huffington Post articles shared on my social media timelines I stumbled across something that intrigued me — "9 Brutally Real Reasons Why Millennials Refuse To Have Kids." I don't really know what I was expecting it to be, but if Isabelle Kohn's goal was to channel her inner Tomi Lahren and throw in a dash of empowerment then she certainly succeeded.
I started reading this column and got a little upset. You see, I'm a parent and I'm only 26. I have just started building my career, I'm pretty broke and I'm *gasp* not even married!
That's the thing, though — we "millennials" do things differently. We all know how to hold our own and make it work! We all have different ideas of what a perfect life is, and we aren't going to let someone else shape our lives for us just because we need to fit into a mold. That is so awesome!
There absolutely are legitimate reasons and concerns for people who don't want children, and I get that, but body shaming pregnant women by calling pregnancy gross is not okay. Ever. "I'm just not one of those people that think pregnancy is beautiful. I see pregnant women and my eye bulges and I feel grossed out by the whole thing." This entire column lost all credibility for me when I read this point to her argument. You don't want to have kids, cool! Don't have them. You want to sit here and tell me how grossed out you are by pregnant women? How about we just don't.
The entire piece is full of awkwardly rude references to children, calling others gross, and talking about how selfish others are for wanting children to begin with. Sorry if you're surprised that for some reason people don't want to hear you out when it comes to this subject- especially if this really is how you might approach it. I'm guessing things must look pretty bleak if the only way you could describe your life choice was with such hateful rhetoric.
But really, why should anyone have to rationalize their choices anyways? Why should we make someone feel so less than that articles like this even need to be published? Why can't we just take the reason of "because I don't want to [have children]" and leave well enough alone? Why can't people just mind their own business when it comes to how or when others decide to reproduce?
Oh, and Isabelle, next time you feel like publishing something to stir the pot you might not want to, essentially, plagiarize.
