And clips...check it out, I have a clip file...

erika, that's awesome. And the thing about them being lucky to have you? Totally true.

Hrm. Perhaps brakes are not needed for meara, but a line in the sand that can be re-assessed in a few months?

SO TIRED. Please to let me go home now.

I have some discomfort with calling childlessness "a life of one's own."

Well, as you noted, Robin, it's a semantic thing. I admit that I was using it as sloppy shorthand for "a life that is unencumbered by having, raising, and caring for one's own offspring." That's all I meant.

I didn't mean that parents don't have their own lives; and I don't mean that non-parents have lives that are totally unencumbered by any external demand.

I apologize for my sloppy shorthand semantics. I didn't mean to offend parents or non-parents; all of your lives are your own and equally valid.

Steph, I, for one, was not offended in the least. If it matters, what with me being a breeder and all.

t winks

I love being a mom. I would hope that noone thought less of me for loving being a mom. I would never think less of anyone for not wanting to be a parent. It just means that you are the person I come to when I have no money.

Heh. I think I'm just worried about getting my heart broken. Which of course, is impossible to predict/prevent(in a sane way)/etc.

Stupid realtionship crap.

I'm completely glad about it...especially when I think about how I worried about that starting out...I wish I had thought in terms of doing it piece by piece cause that's how it happened. Bird by bird, you might say. And I have references beyond the One Prof Who Doesn't Think I'm A Mental Patient, as in college.(My nerves were...not that strong, in school. I still feel bad about that, even thinking about all the demands I had on them.)

Teppy--I knew as an editrix, you'd understrand that it was merely semantic for me! I knew you didn't mean it the way I took it. It is a phrase I have heard others use (and mean) so I thought it was worth bringing up.

I apologize for my sloppy shorthand semantics. I didn't mean to offend parents or non-parents; all of your lives are your own and equally valid.

Teppy, I didn't even know that Robin was responding to you (I had to skim a bit since I'm still at work). I was responding to the topic in general, not your comment. No worries on my end!

Okay; I was just afraid, between misinterpreting David's earlier post, and my sloppy shorthand, that I was coming off as even more of a dick than usual and managing to offend everyone in one fell swoop.

I love being a mom. I would hope that noone thought less of me for loving being a mom. I would never think less of anyone for not wanting to be a parent. It just means that you are the person I come to when I have no money.

Heh.

Being childless somehow meant that we weren't a "real" family--that we weren't "real" adults. Some people were (and are) downright patronizing about it.

I've run into that attitude a lot. In fact, someone once told me "Oh, once you outgrow this whole goth thing, you'll change you're mind about kids". I just boggled at them.