I grew up in a smaller, very RP town in Canada. I have always wanted children because my parents had 4 and most of the people I grew up with had large families. In addition, our language is dying (French) and this has caused a lot of political tensions between anglophones and francophones; many anglophones are very liberal and discourage having large families.
I met the love of my life at university, and he happens to be an anglophone. Slowly, I found myself rejecting some of the values I grew up with... For example, my mother was a SAHM and she was amazing. I also wanted to be a SAHM. But at university, I double majored in anthropology and computer science, and now my job offer following graduation is 6 figures. I feel empowered to take the job and to be a "career woman", something I never wanted before.
This brings up the topic of children. I'm almost 25 (I know it's older than most graduating students), having worked completed internships during my degree and sometimes studying part-time. We got married last year and initially, talked about not having children. I even shocked myself with that! Now I'm in a limbo, caught between wanting children and not wanting them.
I admire this community and hope that you will have some advice for me on how to reconcile these two opposing views. Or if you have any similar stories, with either outcome. Thank you!
Edit: just a note, but I have already been speaking about this with my husband. We are fence-sitting. I feel like it's hard to find support from his family or his friends here because they're so childfree... his best friend is also anti-natalist to some extent. We do have opposing views on many things, but I don't want him to get sucked in by the childfree mentality.
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