I personally think it’s way more selfish to have children out of some misguided notion of duty, even though you don’t really want to be a mother. I acknowledge that our society still puts a certain amount of pressure on women to conform to that husband, 1.6 kid, white picket fence lie, but this generation of women aren’t in the same position as the women of my mother’s or my grandmother’s generations, or even my beloved gen x.

This generation has women like you, who aren’t afraid to shout your truth from the rooftops. Women like you give other, less certain women the gift of empowerment by making it clear that the choice is theirs, and one choice is just as good as another.

I get that for the same reason you get to be heard now, we seem to hear more of women condemning other women for making different choices than they make, but that’s just because of access. We literally hear more of EVERYTHING than we used to. The judgment was always there, it was just less exposed.

Changing an entire set of values or beliefs is like spring cleaning. Everything is going to get worse before it gets better.

So, sure, it’s not perfect. Yet. Sometimes it takes a generation or two for a belief system to truly shift. But I don’t think anyone can say things aren’t changing.

Good for you.