Does it happen to you too that people constantly stick their noses where they absolutely shouldn’t? It happens to me ALL THE TIME.

I don’t know if it’s because of the region, the culture, the lack of education, or something else, but our people love to mind others’ business instead of their own.

And what new thing have I said now, isn’t this common knowledge? Nothing really, but if we don’t stay silent about the problem and instead address it and point out the anomaly often enough, then there’s a chance that things will become more conscious and who knows, maybe even change.

From birth until probably death, we all encounter the almost daily interference of other people in our affairs.

Everyone wants to know where you’re going, who you’re hanging out with, what you’re doing, who you’re sleeping with, how often, and of course, when all that sleeping will finally bear fruit.

And when it finally does, it doesn’t take long for those same noses to multiply with the question: when’s the next one?

Because it’s common knowledge that one child is simply not enough.

Why? Just because it’s not!

Half-mother me and my only child.

A child should have a brother or sister.

Why? So it won’t be selfish and spoiled! Okay, because once again it’s common knowledge that all the only children in the world are selfish and spoiled, and that among children with siblings (the more, the better, but again, not too many) there are no selfish and spoiled kids.

It’s also common knowledge that people who have only one child are naturally selfish, so they aim for their kids to be the same.

Just like it’s common knowledge that you’re not a complete or real mother if you haven’t had at least two children. In fact, with one child, you’re just a half-mother, neither here nor there.

It’s common knowledge that everyone has the right to ask questions about a couple’s reproductive abilities, because it’s common knowledge that you’re not having children for yourself, but for the family, relatives, friends, society, the state, the species…

It’s common knowledge that no one asks how you feel. What do you want? What can you do? All of that is less important than the higher goal, and that goal is at least two children, right?

And it’s forgotten that many people can’t have children at all and that pointing fingers at an empty womb can hurt more than a stab in the stomach.

That many people, in fact, want to have just one child and don’t consider themselves selfish.

That many people don’t have the means, opportunities, or conditions to have children.

That not all siblings in the world are harmonious and on good terms.

That kindergartens are already overcrowded and have shorter hours than the average workday for a full-time working parent.

That women, especially mothers, are less likely to get jobs, let alone good positions, precisely because they are mothers.

That those same women earn significantly less compared to their male colleagues, and their pensions will be even more meager, because it’s assumed that while working, they can’t work full-time since they have children, and therefore, when they get old, they can’t survive on their pensions because, obviously, they didn’t work full-time. Paradoxical, isn’t it?

Every family, whether it has two, three, five, or ten members, should first and foremost be a happy and harmonious family, with love as the guiding force.

And that’s what should be taken for granted.

Everything else is none of your business.

Sincerely,

S-Mama