On being child-free

I was quite absorbed in reading this Huffington Post article about childless couples as Brian and I are set on being child-free. It was truly a breath of fresh air to see in the comments that there are indeed lots of people who share our decision and it makes me feel less of a freak. 

In a lot of places all over the world, majority of the people want kids. It's also been practiced in culture that most marriages have offsprings. So it's understandable that a lot of people think and assume that for everyone it is marriage = babies, like what this one commenter said:

Generally the creation of children is the main reason people get married. If you're not planning on having kids, then why not just live together?

To which Brian responded:

A couple can "just live together" and still have children, too. The uterus does not require legal documentat­ion to ship its product.

As far as legal benefits go, both couples with and without children can legally benefit from being married - so I don't understand the idea of getting married if you plan to have children, and just living together if you don't.

It depends on how you regard the meaning of marriage. I believe a marriage is a formal commitment between two people to love each other, exclusivel­y, until death do them part. Not a formal commitment to make babies.

Indeed.

Here in the Philippines, even if you're single, heck, even if you're not in a relationship, people persuade you to have babies na! (Does this give away my age? Hehe.) They would push the idea on you that a) you should get married so you can have kids and/or b) it's your life dream to have babies. I'm already bracing myself for more comments like those once Brian and I are married.

People need to be more broad-minded about this stuff. That there are people who choose to be child-free. It's a preference. It's a life decision. It's our life decision, not theirs. For some couples, children are just not essential.