I have never felt more validated to be childfree than now that I'm with my boyfriend

I am a 25 (F) and my boyfriend is 26 (M) and we have been together for 2 years now. I've always loved kids, both as a kid and as an adult, I've always been good with them, and I've always been the person that parents trust without a second thought to watch their kids. I did a lot of babysitting growing up and loved having kids around me. <br><br>My dad has never wanted kids and he's always made that very clear. He's always been the "I don't want kids" kind of guy, and my mom was the "I do want kids" kind of person, so here I am. My parents have also always been very open with me about how difficult it is to be a parent, and how they wish they could go back in time and not have kids, or that they wish they'd had just one child instead of two, so I grew up with a very good understanding of the difficulties of being a parent.<br><br>That having been said, when I was growing up (I'm a 90s kid, 2000s teen), everyone wanted to have kids and being a parent was always seen as this wonderful, fulfilling thing that you were meant to do. <br><br>So even though I was familiar with the other side of the story, I grew up thinking "oh I know having kids is hard, but it's worth it in the end to be able to look back on your life and see what you accomplished", and "I'll be happy to make sacrifices for my kids".<br><br>So I grew up expecting to be a mom one day. <br><br>Then I got out of highschool and got a job and realized I didn't want kids anymore. I didn't want to give up my freedom to travel, my spare time to hobbies, my money to tuition, etc etc. I didn't want to be a mom anymore. But I still loved kids and still felt bad about never getting to be a mom.<br><br>I felt very judged by society for not wanting kids. I'm a woman, I'm meant to be a mother! I feel like I'm letting my parents and my family down because I'm not going to give them grandkids. I didn't want to fail at being a parent and hurt my kids because I didn't really want to be a parent. I didn't want to trap a man into being a father because I got accidentally pregnant. And so on. <br><br>Then I met my boyfriend. He's a very good looking man, he has a chiseled jawline, he's fit, he has bright blue eyes. He looks like one of those Ken dolls, you know the kind of men that women want to have babies with because they're just so good looking.<br><br>And the thing is, he was made to never be able to have kids. I don't remember the specifics of it (something about how his seminal vesicles are blocked), but the outcome of it is that he will never be able to biologically have kids, and so he's always known that he could never be a father. <br><br>A few nights ago, we were having a conversation about children again, and I asked him how he would feel if he found out that he was actually fertile after all this time, and he said that he would actually feel very upset about it. He said that he doesn't feel like a whole man because of his infertility, but he has come to terms with it and does not want kids. <br><br>This was a really eye-opening thing for me to hear. <br><br>I had assumed that deep down inside, he wanted to be a father but was sad that it couldn't happen, but it turns out that he's perfectly happy with not being a father. <br><br>And that makes ME happy too. <br><br>For the first time in my life I don't feel judged by society or my family. My parents are happy that I won't have kids, and my sister, who has 2 children, frequently says that she wishes she didn't have kids.<br><br>I feel validated in my decision to be childfree. <br><br>I don't have to worry about accidentally getting pregnant and having kids that I don't want. I don't have to worry that my boyfriend and I disagree on kids, because he doesn't want them either. <br><br>I guess this is just a ramble about feeling happy that I don't have to have kids and I don't want to have kids, and I finally feel validated.