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Sharingan, you are entitled to your opinion and as I clearly said, I was stating my opinion and it doesn't mean I'm wrong in that just because you don't like it! I don't think I especially have an "axe to grind" on it, yes I do have one child, but I also have a varied life experience so that comes into it, plus I'm an avid people watcher, have come across many different people in my time and have seen and heard much hypocrisy on reasons for wanting and having children.
The child I did have was disabled, I had lost my Mum at age 13 so had barely any family/support network around as a young Mother and it was very difficult. Of course that and other things have affected me, we are all a sum of our life experiences and I make no apology for that. Having said that, look at other people's attitudes and assumptions, I had numerous people tell me without being asked, that I should "have more children as i might get a normal one"!!! One of the main reasons I didn't want to have another child was that I knew I wouldn't cope very well with the one I had, due to the disability angle and that's how I am. I am someone who's never been won over by "cute babies", like many women are as I find babies/small children very tedious and in any case, they grow into large children and teenagers!
I grew in up in 1960's/70's very Catholic Ireland, where people just kept reproducing because that's what the non married, celibate and useless priests told them to do. Both my parents as was normal back then came from very poor farms, too many children they couldn't really feed or give a decent life to, they either left Ireland for work or went to Dublin, where my parents met. I was a sensitive soul even as a child and was affected by my parents tales of either walking miles to school with no shoes or 5+ having to share a bed&clothes. It doesn't take a psychologist to work out that my Mum dying at age 36, of cancer of the womb, having had her 5th child and then dying not long after, led to some of my views.
I still can't stand the so called celebrities banging on about the bloody environment, while adding more and more people to it, using it's resources, and lecturing everyone else. Some responses have mentioned the third world and it's massive poverty problems, again what does this tell you, that after all the Band Aid, Live Aid, Bill gates donating huge sums of money, putting programmes&clinics in, none of this seems to have changed or made things better and though it's not the total reason, one is that they keep churning out masses more mouths to feed, and it's not politically correct to talk about contraception etc!
I once had someone from Christian Aid knock on my door to pick up an envelope looking for money and i asked what their policy was on giving contraceptive and other family planning advice to these countries, the woman got very flustered and mumbled something about it wasn't their place to tell them what to do etc., so i said I don't want to give money and that's my reason, she scurried away quickly!!
Point of interest, I have 4 siblings (Mum would have felt obliged to have more if she hadn't got cancer young) 2 have had babies and had those adopted, 2 others have never had any and I only had 1, so this attitude may not be mine alone?