"So when you guys planning on having kids?"

"You're at the perfect age to have kids!"

"When I was your age, I already had two kids!"

I've heard these words spoken to me multiple times in recent years. Now that I'm 27, living in a house with my boyfriend and am about to start my full-time career, I MUST be ready to have kids, right? Wrong. So wrong.

First of all, I'm not mentally or emotionally ready for a child. Also, I'm not financially prepared for a child, at all. I'm over $100,000 in student loan debt and I just graduated with my master's degree less than a month ago. I also want to do things like travel and I love sleep and having/saving money.

I can't do any of those if I have a child anytime soon. Children are expensive. According to an article from USA TODAY, the U.S. Department of Agriculture states that it costs $233,610 to raise a child in a middle-class family excluding the cost of college. I don't have an extra pile of large cash lying around to raise a child.

My boyfriend and I are doing OK financially, but we're not great. We are in no position to raise another human. We're millennials and we're perpetually in debt with stagnant wages and a rising cost of living. Having a child would be a horrible idea.

So when will I have kids? I don't know and I'm not ready. That's it, that's my explanation.

I have no idea when children will come into the picture. Also, with the shape that our society is in and the imminent threat of climate change, I'm not 100 percent sure I want to bring a child to an already overpopulated world that is surely facing a future of droughts, wars, famine and forest fires. I am scared for the future of our planet and humanity. I want kids, but at the same time I don't want kids. Raising kids is also hard, like really hard.

Once someone has a child, their life changes forever. It is a lifetime commitment and most parents don't have the freedom to go on a spontaneous trip or vacation. Plus, there's the whole lack of sleep factor in play. I have insomnia and don't need another reason to struggle with sleep. I do like babies and kids, I think they are great - but I'm in no position or state of mind to raise one.

If we have a steady income and enough room in the budget for a child in the far away future, then sure, I'll have one. But right now, that's just not an option for me or my boyfriend. Another reason I'm not ready for children is that the United States still doesn't have mandatory paid maternity leave or paternity leave, which is bullshit. Country of family values, my ass. It takes a year or more for a woman's body to recover from the effects of pregnancy and 6-12 weeks off for maternity leave simply isn't enough time.

So, please don't ask me when I'm having kids because I don't know. My uterus isn't any of your business, anyway.