This might be a heavy topic for the Lounge, but I will ask anyway

[csziggy]

6. No, I never liked kids, never wanted any

From six until I left home I watched my aunt get pregnant over and over and over. She had six children and miscarried multiple times. Basically, she was pregnant for the entire time I knew her. She did not have easy pregnancies, got huge early and carried badly, was sick much of the time she was pregnant.

As the in between kid - my two older sisters were old enough to get out of the chore - I was given the task at family gatherings to watch her brood. They were obnoxious brats, probably because their mother was too sick most of the time to take care of them and their father was either working or taking care of her. I'd get in trouble for "letting" them do stuff.

In between the two oldest of her children was my little sister, whose personality prepared me for Trump. I was also supposed to be responsible for her and she actively worked to make my life hell. All in all, my childhood and teenage years pretty much conditioned me to never want children.

I do enjoy time with most of my nieces and nephews and now with their children - as a aunt who has absolutely no responsibility for the really young ones. When my first great nephew was an infant, his mother tried to hand him to me. All I felt was revulsion. I guess my maternal instincts were used up by my horse babies.