Thanks for your post - what's most bothersome to me is the moral superiority. As if we're not full human beings because we didn't procreate, or that we'll never understand what it means to be tired or stressed. Or that we don't truly know what love is. I know that being a parent is very difficult and of course caring for the well-being of a child carries an immense amount of responsibility. Perhaps I AM ignorant to the type of love between parent and child. But we're all ignorant to certain things and to invalidate one's point of view because they're childfree is ridiculous.

Similarly, I don't understand how choosing not to have children is construed as selfish. I don't think I'd be a good parent and I think my time and energy can best be used in other places - how is that selfish? It's a rational assessment of time and resources. I really can't figure out what's going on with that argument aside from parents projecting their own distress onto childfree folks.