Growing up, I was always the youngest. I am the youngest in both my immediate family and extended family, except for two cousins that are around my age. I was never around babies or small children for the past twenty years. I never had to deal with them.

Now, frankly, I can't stand to be around them. I just don't like kids - I don't like babies, I don't think they're cute, and I don't think they're sweet. They gross me out and annoy me. It may have something to do with the youngest child syndrome, but I simply do not like children. I don't think I'm maternal, and I especially don't want to force myself to have a family I do not want.

When I was a teenager, and I would tell adults that I didn't want children, they'd laugh and say "you say that now, but just you wait!"

No. Just.. no. I'm almost a decade older from when I first started saying that, and now that I'm an adult, I still feel the exact same way. How is it so hard to comprehend that a woman doesn't want to have any kids?

It's annoying, honestly. I'm tired of not being taken seriously when I say what I feel. No, I don't think my mind will change. No, being around babies does not make me want kids. If anything, being around babies makes me not want to have kids even more.

50 years ago, women generally stayed home and took care of children when the men went to work. Now, we're still expected to do the same, even if we want careers and educations and something other than just children.

I'm planning on being a doctor, and nowhere in that plan has anything to do with children. I don't want to have to worry about anyone else because I want my career to essentially be my life. I don't want to be a mom unless it's to a cat.

There's middle-aged family members and Facebook friends who act like I personally offended them when they find out I don't want kids. They act like it's my duty as a woman to marry and reproduce, but I don't want that for myself.

Heck, I don't even know if I ever want to get married. I have little regard for romantic relationships, and if anything, I feel like they often get in the way of what I'm trying to do for myself.

Call me selfish; I don't care. But when someone tells you they don't want a child, or they don't want a husband, respect their decision. They don't have to do what you deem fit for them, no matter if you're family or friend. Take them seriously, and don't just try to make them seem crazy because they don't want what you want.

Having children is a choice, not an expectation. Don't expect it from someone who doesn't want that for themselves.