Meara, cool. Really. Even if it does make me wonder if I'm the Homely Dateless Bitch.

people who have lots of baggage

Everybody does meara...you just get to decide if her baggage fits in your overhead compartment, eh?

Though could i get some buffista words of advice on people who have lots of baggage and the wise-ness or lack thereof of being in some kind of relationship wtih them?

admires extensive personal set of matched luggage

Shoot, sweetheart. Also, yay you!

I have some discomfort with calling childlessness "a life of one's own." Everyone has a life of one's own. Parents have a life of their own--it is more proscribed and has more demands, but it IS their own life. People who choose to live with someone as a romantic partner, or single people who live with elderly parents or, hell, even folks with roommates they are close to all have their own lives. I know exactly what Teppy meant, and as a person with no children, I have had judgmental comments directed my way. This is entirely a picky semantic concern on my part.

David, I'm not trying to all up in your grill, but you are the one who described it as selfish:

If I'm misreading that, *please* explain it to me, because it sounds to me like you're saying that people who choose not to have kids in order to have their own lives *are* being selfish.

I was only addressing the people who had self-described themselves as selfish. I probably should've used quote marks to indicate that.

you just get to decide if her baggage fits in your overhead compartment, eh?

I adore this phrase.

"Mommies are people/ people with children." My mother says all the time that she wishes she waited to have us. But I never got the sense she'd trade or anything. Just to do more stuff first.

I interrupt this discussion for Jesus Pierogi!

If I were god, I'd totally manifest my image in food.

I never wanted kids. Ever. I like kids, I like spending time with kids (as is probably obvious from my geebling adoration of Princess Tickybox), and I am looking forward to being the Honorary Auntie to my friends' children. But none of my own, thanks.

(I am always amused that once people know I'm married, I hardly ever get the "So, when are you having kids?" question. Apparently looking obviously eccentric gets you a free pass on the baby question from most people.)

I'm an only child. I can't really imagine what my life would have been like with a sibling; I *liked* being an only child.

I had a bunch of quotes that I was going to respond to, and then I saw that they were all Steph-generated, so all I will say is Go Team What Teppy Said! I will print out your posts and wordlessly hand them to people when they ask about our child-having proclivities.

I was talking to my sister about an upcoming family wedding that will be adults-only, and they are considering leaving the kids for the weekend and coming up. And she said, you know, I don't even know (her husband) as a person anymore. I know him only as a father, and my partner in raising the kids. And that wigged me out too.

But I DO want a dog!

1. All weekend long (and even into last night), Christopher kept accidentally referring to MLK as, "Doctor Martin Luther the King."

BWAH! Does he know that's a "Coming To America" quote? "You lying. You never did meet no Martin Luther the King!"

I always assumed I'd have 4, because I came from a family of 4 kids, and so did both of my parents.

Heh. My sister has 2, and we were a family of 2, and all our cousins were from families of 2 as well. When she mentioned having a third child, I was like, "that is totally CRAZY talk. Who has THREE kids?" Which is funny, 'cause lots of people do. But it totally went against my perceptions of child-having reality!