August 5th, 2009 by Chris Eng

I don’t want children. Ever. Neither does Carla. On either our first or second date, we had a conversation that went something like this:

Chris: Babies?
Carla: No babies.
Chris & Carla: *whew*

There are a variety of reasons for this decision, not the least of which is that I’m pretty sure I’d be a bad dad. I’m not looking for reassurances, here–my dad is a stubborn bastard with periodic rage issues and I can see some of those qualities in myself. Carla and I are also not ready to give up as much of our lives as we’d have to (a couple of decades or so) in order to raise another human being. But the overriding reason not to breed, for me, has always been the fact that there’s too many people on the planet already. I’ve watched the population soar in my lifetime and the thought of bringing yet another person into an already overcrowded world smacks slightly of insanity. I mean, if you all want to have babies, that’s your choice; I understand the biological imperative, but the more children brought into the world, the larger the ecological disservice done to the planet–an argument borne out by this blog entry.

Yes, thank you for sorting your recycling and driving a hybrid car. Now, for your next environmental contribution, please stop making more babies.