The Royal Baby

I'm only writing about this because it's all I've been hearing about this week.

Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Kate Middleton (or whatever her married name is). She's smart, beautiful, has a great sense of style, and though I've never met her, I bet she's super-nice. And Prince William is obviously a catch (he's a prince after all! No receding hairline can take that away from him). They are the picture-perfect couple. And now the picture-perfect family.

For royalty, I understand that you kind of have to have kids. You need an heir to the throne, blah blah blah. And biologically you're supposed to have children to make sure your genes get to take a swim in the gene pool. But since I don't want children, this whole baby craze baffles me.

This post is not about my confusion as to why people want to have and raise children; that would take an entire book. I mainly want to focus on the fact that in our society, a couple without children does not seem to count for much. I mean, as soon as the royal wedding was over in April of 2011, people immediately started wondering when there would be a baby prince or princess.

Why can't a family be considered complete with just a couple? I'm certainly a complete person (I don't believe in that "you're my better half" stuff. No, I am a complete entity on my own, thank you very much), and if/when I get married, I would want to focus on the two of us, just us. So much more focus is put on the bond between parents and children than between the parents themselves! Sure, our society is lovesick and focuses on romance ALL the time (i.e. every movie ever made), but that's always about the couple BEFORE they are married. It's about FALLING in love, not remaining in love as adults. Suddenly love isn't the focus anymore: breeding is.

Personally, I like the idea of dedicating my life to someone else. But I want that someone else to be my husband, not some bratty kid who's going to take me for granted for most of my life. The relationship of a couple is the foundation of a family, and to me, that's the most integral relationship there is to a family. Because let's be honest: if there's no couple, there are no babies (well, unless you use a sperm donor. And that's a whole other story...), and therefore no nuclear family.

*This post is a personal rant and is written for ME. If it offends you, don't read it. If you have children, I'm sorry that I don't like kids, but that's never going to change. And if you have children but aren't part of a nuclear family (i.e. single parent), your job is even harder! So, I realize most people like kids and think that raising children is worth all of the sacrifices. But I don't fall into that category, so you're just going to have to deal with posts like this. Get over it.