Socially accepted questions that shouldn’t be

Why is it OK for people to ask when are you having kids, why you don’t have kids, and so on? Complete strangers feel completely comfortable and entitled to ask why you don’t have kids when they learn that you have been married for – oh – so many years!

Seriously, we all have to start making sure this kind of question is not OK. I guess people just take for granted that anyone can have kids whenever they want, which is ridiculous (hello, 10% of the reproductive-age population is affected!). All that goes through people’s minds when they ask this question is that this couple has to be selfish or too modern for their own sake, because EVERYBODY should have kids, right? I am not even going to get into the merit of this kind of thinking.

I am starting to tell these people to get real, most couples without kids are not in that situation by choice. I know far more couples who wanted to have kids and can’t than couples who actually decided against having kids. So if you are one of the people who asks such innocent question, don’t. It should be considered a very rude question, I don’t know why it’s not but I will try to convince as many people as possible that it is indeed very rude. You don’t go around asking anyone how often they have sex, because it’s a personal question. Well, fertility issues are too.

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