This Woman Perfectly Explains Why You Shouldn't Ask People Why They Don't Have Kids
“Even if it feels like it’s not a big deal for you, it might be a really big deal to the person you are asking.”
Emily Bingham is a 33-year-old freelance journalist and social media consultant from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Recently, she's gotten a lot of attention for her Facebook post on people inquiring about fertility and reproduction issues.
On Sept. 20, she uploaded this photo of an ultrasound to Facebook and attached a message regarding the many questions women face about reproduction.
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.
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. You don't know who has decided it's not for them right now, or not for them ever. You don't know how your seemingly innocent question might cause someone grief, pain, stress or frustration.
Sure, for some people those questions may not cause any fraught feelings -- but I can tell you, from my own experiences and hearing about many friends' experiences -- it more than likely does.
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