It’s just 87 days until Christmas, which means we’re just a few shy weeks away from hitting peak-annoying questions from your aunt Jackie or pass-agg comments from your granny. Yes, you are aware you’re about to turn 27. No, you hadn’t forgotten that your clock is ticking. Hang on – this was meant to be a relaxing holiday… And maybe you don’t even want kids anyway!
It was a similar situation like this that has pushed American writer Emily Bingham over the edge. Fed up with either well-meaning family members or irritating strangers essentially asking her and her friends about the state of their reproductive organs, she posted a picture of a scan on Facebook. And let rip.
She said: “Hey everyone!!! Now that I got your attention with this RANDOM ULTRASOUND PHOTO I grabbed from a Google image search, this is just a friendly P.S.A. that people’s reproductive and procreative plans and decisions are none of your business. NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS."
She explained: “Before you ask the young married couple that has been together for seemingly forever when they are finally gonna start a family … before you ask the parents of an only-child toddler when a Little Brother or Little Sister will be in the works … before you ask a single 30-something if/when s/he plans on having children because, you know, clock’s ticking … just stop. Please stop.
“You don’t know who is struggling with infertility or grieving a miscarriage or dealing with health issues. You don’t know who is having relationship problems or is under a lot of stress or the timing just isn’t right. You don’t know who is on the fence about having kids or having more kids.”
Her outburst hit a nerve with roughly half the world’s population and currently has 40,000 shares, with other people commenting: “hear hear”, “a hundred times yes” and “I love you”.
Emily’s post came just weeks after Kim Cattrall spoke out about her hatred for the word ‘childless’ (“it makes you feel like you’re less because you haven’t had a child”) and model Chrissy Teigen wishing people would stop asking her when she is going to have a baby.
Bottom line: don’t ask people what their plans for their wombs are, OK?