The Definition of a Family Is Wrong. You Don’t “Start” It When You Have Kids.
You Don’t Start a Family When You Have Children. You Do It Long Before That
“When are you going to start a family?”
This question has always annoyed me. Not to the point of getting upset and meaning mean to the questioner, but to the point of dwelling on how closed-minded the society is. First, I got this question as early as 16 and graduated high school. I don’t need to start a family; my parents, whom I live with, are my family. It’s pointless to ask a teen or a young adult when they’re going to start a family, especially considering that more and more millennials and Gen Z-ers opt to have children after obtaining an education and having work prospects.
But let’s be real: people mostly get this unsolicited interest in their deeply personal lives either when they are married or when they are around 25 to 35 and single. Because, you know, if you have a long-term significant other yet you aren’t married, you are not a family. In the event you have, in fact, exchanged your vows, then you aren’t considered a family until you give birth to a child, preferably more than one.
I vehemently refuse to accept the premise that starting a family means having kids. In fact, you don’t necessarily need…
