For a long time, the thought of being a dad appealed to me so much that I even had names picked out for my hypothetical children. If you're curious, they were Kurt and Salvatore for boys and Bianca and Sierra for girls.
But while I still think I could make a loving dad and my opinion on children themselves hasn't soured, I'm now firm in my belief that this is no longer something I should do. And as sad as it is, the reason for that is I'm simply not confident in the future that I would be ushering them into.
That's not to say that I judge new parents for feeling differently. I'm genuinely happy that they're more optimistic about where the world is going and I wish I shared that optimism.
But my fears are far from the only reason why someone may choose not to have kids. And whatever those reasons are, I believe they're as serious about them as I am about mine.
But since so many of them often report pressure from friends and family to procreate anyway, this consideration is far from universal. And I think it's time we changed that.