Happy November 1st World and congratulations on reaching 7 BILLION members of the Human Race.  Did you know that humans are the most destructive scourge on the planet?  Some argue the biggest parasite.  Perhaps instead of passing out candy to Trick-or-treaters yesterday, we should have handed out birth control?

So what does that mean for Us?  Eventually, the water will run out, the health of the soil will expire, the crops will fail and we’ll be pumping ourselves so full of chemicals and drugs to sustain ourselves that we’ll kill ourselves off.  Well – we all have to go sometime, don’t we?

All of this makes me ponder why it is that people absolutely HAVE to have children.  I don’t have them.  I thought I would at one point, but… that feeling wore off.  I attribute that to the idea of having children being ingrained in me as “just what you do as a woman”.  To that I say, “Pfffffft!”  This is not to say that I don’t like kids.  Far from it.  I love my nieces and nephews as if they were my own.  Friends’ children can be very charming.  The lovely fact is, they aren’t mine.  I can spend time with them, dote on them, send presents and cards, and at the end of the day (or weekend), I can go to sleep in a quiet house… no toys underfoot… no screaming, no crying, no vomiting.  Selfish?  I don’t think so.  Here’s why…

I chose to put off having kids, when I thought I was going to have them, because money was tight after first getting married.  Eventually, things evened out financially and we found ourselves in a position to actually have FUN with OUR money.  So, we had the honeymoon we never had, and it was GREAT!  We were enjoying our monies, and enjoying the travel we were able to do.  What happened next was yearly discussions of “Do we have kids or not?”  Each time we had the discussion, we decided we were good without, and so it went for another year.

Add to all of that the heart stuff…  Medications I was on meant that if a family were to happen, I’d have to stop taking the heart meds.  If I stopped taking the heart meds, I’d feel horrendous.  Since they were pretty certain what I had was genetic, I chose to remove myself from the gene pool.  Why perpetuate medical issues?  Again, it was discussed – again it was decided we were good without.

This rant is not at all a slam against those with kids.  Great!  Because you have or had them, I don’t have to!  I appreciate what you do when you’re a great parent.  That’s the caveat… “a great parent”…. Too many out there haven’t stepped up the plate, or live in some sort of fantasy world where they think they’re the worlds best parents, and are far from it.

There are many out there who accuse DH and I of being very selfish, for not following through on our obligation.  To them I say, “Bite me.”  I’ve made my bed, and I’ll sleep in it – nice and quietly, thank you very much.

And now for something completely different….

Lest everyone reading this think I’m a complete ass… I love the Peanuts production, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”  I have to watch it every year.  Twenty-five minutes out of my year for a classic that makes me laugh is well worth it.  Who wouldn’t laugh at Linus’s uttering of, “Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker”?

The Fall can begin now that I’ve watched The Great Pumpkin… okay, and the fact that I’ve been in the mood to crochet and knit silly hats.  More on those later… and probably some to be for sale as well.