I apologize, Polter-Cow, but scenes from the first season of The Guild keep popping into my head. "He better still be a virgin!" "But your babies will be so ugly!"

At least I'm on the bench with some beautiful women. All my brain can think of is "if only". I mean, have y'all seen Smonsters OKcupid profile pic? Hubba Hubba!

Speaking of lonely hearts bench. One profile in OKC said something about friends writing it. Anyone interested in writing part/all of mine? Clearly my profile writing abilities suck.

Glamcookie, you caused no bad feelings for me with the kids question. These days I'm feeling much better and happier about lots of things. While it is still one of those things that can eat at me, this discussion didn't upset me or anything.

Piles of let-it-be-nothing-ma heading your way Raq. My money's on cyst.

Have only really skimmed, but much ~ma for Aims (I'm glad to hear she came home), Spidra and anyone else who needs it. And good-decision-on-children~ma for Glamcookie and DW.

Edit: Health~ma for amyth's brother and wishing-for-nothing~ma for Raq.

Children. The idea is anathema to me and always has been. (That may or may not be the remnants of my conservative Christian upbringing.) The Girl would love to have children. There are a lot of issues there, though. Not least that neither of us makes any money and I'm not physically up to looking after kids. (I would be with the right support, but that would necessitate having some money.) We met with my priest for our first pre-wedding discussion last night. He was really positive about our possibilities for kids. I'm not sure I want prayer for the blessing of children at my wedding, though. It's all a bit confusing.

my dad obviously believes he can just convince my brother to break up with his girlfriend of three-and-a-half years because it's not our culture.

I can relate. From the other side. (Although in my case, The Girl's parents think she's the evil corrupting one. Which is both funny and sad.) I hope your brother survives this, and that he can persuade your family that his girl is not evil.

Much nothing-much~ma to Raq.

Sean, I've been feeling the same way your earlier post described. Lucky for me I've never wanted kids, because at 42 it's very unlikely, even if I did wake up and find myself in a long-term relationship. But I do want to fall in love at some point. Doing so with someone who loves me back would be even better. It's hard to imagine either happening, though.

Masses of "it's nothing"~ma to Raq.

Much ~ma to you, Raq.

• joins the miserable singletons bench* I found out the other night that i've had an okcupid account for over 5 years due to some test or other. It is now more useful. Maybe.

My BFF decided to have a second child because both partners are from big families and they just couldn't imagine having only one child.

And much ~ma to Raq. May the nothingness be confirmed quickly.

I think my parents had me partially because my sister was a really good baby, and partially because it’s pretty uncommon in Ireland, even today, to only have one child. I can only think of one person I was in school with who had no siblings, and she was adopted by a fairly old couple.

Of course, after I was born, my sister was no longer a little angel, to the point where she couldn’t be left unwatched with me until I was two or so because she would try to hurt me. My mum says she started screaming when she came home with me and hasn’t stopped since (this is only slightly an exaggeration).

I’m at the point in my life where I know I should be thinking about having children, but I’m just really not sure. And if you’re not absolutely positively sure that kids are something you want, you maybe shouldn’t have them? I do know I’d really like a phd before even seriously considering it, so it’s at least four or five years down the road, even theoretically.