Sooooooooo much better for somebody to decide not to have kids than to have kids because “it’s just what you do.”

As a parent who is (over?)thinking all the parenting issues you’re mentioning, I don’t understand why anyone tries to talk someone else into having kids. I have an in-progress Medium draft about that; I should really revisit it.

All that said (swear I’m not trying to talk you into it), the fact that you’re asking these questions means you’d probably do an above-average job at parenting, if you decided to.

I love dogs too. My furbaby was my first baby. He is much easier than my human baby, for sure. Dogs are endlessly forgiving.