this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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childfree

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Hi folks, I thought I'd create some content and share some experience and learning around any concerns I had about being childfree in my first 10 years after my tubal. I hope this can help those that are at this stage now.

I will say that 35 years after my tubal, I realized in retrospect, somewhere during that time, that I knew in my teens I didn't want kids. I did go through a period, soon after my tubal at 24, of about 10 years where a lot of my friends tried to pressure me into either spending a ton of time with their kids or even adopt, where I wondered if I really wanted kids cuz I liked babies under 6 months of age. It wasn't until I got close to someone and her newborn, where I spent plenty of time with her kid over the next 3 years and she was TOTALLY accepting of my decision and NEVER pushed an agenda. I finally realized I truly lost interest in the kid after about 6 months of age and knew I wasn't interested, not because I was pushing back against acquaintances who were pushing their own agenda in opposition to mine, but because I JUST LOST INTEREST. It took a good, secure in their parenthood, friend to let me understand there was zero interest on my part.

As it turns out what I like about babies was the oxytocin hit from carrying them around, which I learned I could get from cats and small dogs, of which I have 2 now, and they stay small forever instead of just 6 months!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Funny thing about oxytocin, it's directly responsible for a great deal of human atrocity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029708/

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wow! Interesting. Also makes sense in the context of fostering the evolutionary adapted benefit of the mother forming an 'in group' bond with her baby.