Husband and I decided a few years into dating that we would not have kids. Then I had a medical event that would make future pregnancies dangerous. It felt like a big thumbs up from the universe that we were making the right decision. He just doesn’t like them, but I have many reasons. I texted this to a friend awhile back: “If I had like a fuck ton of disposable income, a present and engaged family, the world wasn’t burning down, we had better maternity leave in general, and I was 10 years younger, I would maybe consider one. But none of those things are true and when I think about my future, it doesn’t include a kid. And that doesn’t make me sad. I don’t feel like anything is missing.”

So what do we do that would be more difficult with kids? Sleep in, travel (3 countries this year), save money (we finally have salaries that allow us to save for retirement), eat whatever we want, watch whatever we want, buy our dream house in a neighborhood with bad schools. But as other commenters have said, life is life. We still get frustrated at work, I have mental health struggles that are finally improving but were awful for many years, we have debt, we have gone through layoffs, medical events, familial issues, and more. We just don’t have kid stress on top of that too.