OK. I’ve waited a lot of time to do something with this, but it’s sat at the top of my inbox for long enough. Let me give you some background info . . . Every once in a while, when I’m bored, I send some E-Mail Roulette (you send a random thought to someone else who has subscribed to the service; it’s pretty cool). Sometimes I make up new stuff, but usually I just take a blog post, stick it on their submit page and send it. I usually send twenty at a time because I’d tried sending out one at a time before and only rarely received a response. So a couple of roulettes ago, I sent out this post and this was one of the responses:

I consider most of the decisions I make in life to be pretty darned flawed. One that wasn’t was

based on what I can only call a deep and abiding knowledge held throughout my whole life that

parenthood was not on the agenda for me, and thus I took measures to insure that pregnancy would

be a non-issue for me. In other words, I got myself spayed. I would have been able to prevent

two abortions had the gynos allowed me to have my tubal ligation at age 25 the way I’d

originally planned rather than making me wait until I was 30 “in case I changed my mind.“

It utterly flummoxes me how a person has to take a test to drive a motor vehicle or attend a

university, but to raise a human larvae requires not only no test of intelligence, parental

aptitude, physical health, mental health or financial ability…but they do what they can to

make sure EVERY woman is all but pushed into making reproduction be a facet of life whether or

not the woman wants it, and whether or not it would be a particularly good idea to make it so.

In my case it was a double issue. Thankfully I have never felt the tuggings of any maternal

instinct whatsoever, beyond my love of my feline child-surrogates. If I did, it might have

caused me to actually go and have a kid after all despite the fact that I am a fat omnisexual

druggie. Who also is cursed with rather bad genes…heart disease, cancer and obesity run

rampant up both branches of my family tree.

Most of my life choices, as evinced by the above, are what most would call “wonky” at best. Why

I have been so smart as to the matter of not having children is anyone’s guess. I also don’t

drive an automobile. I think being car-free and childfree are probably the two best things I’ve

ever done for the planet and human civilization at large – and perhaps they help make up for

some of my other…shall we say, “less redeeming” qualities.

Cute kids? Only when they’re someone else’s. And usually not then, as it seems they’re always

screaming.

Thanks for the note regarding the Chinese mental health assessment. I’ll have to remember that

one the next time I get asked for my official diagnosis – “something wrong with my brain”

actually sounds much more sensible than “schizoaffective.”

I think she’s dead on with everything she’s said.