#i have my friends and we're closeknit but i don't have a place in that school

[edenslice]

now that the year's over and i'm transferring to a different college, i'm now admitting that my time in uni has been so empty and it's eating me up inside

[nerdygirl2000bbse]

That's all I want is a communal family. I teeter on the edge of never wanting kids and wanting them. It's a big task, I want to make sure I do everything I can for my children to thrive, but with all that's going on in the world today, I fear I won't be able to. The thing is, I have major parental instincts. For my friends, for the kids in my family, for random people lol. I just have that instinct to protect.

But if I don't have kids, what am I gonna do?? Be the crazy fun aunt to all my friends' kids of course! Steal them for a day to take trips and go shopping and see movies and have sleep overs. Hop them up on sugar and release them back to their parents. I want to be a part of the lives of my friends' kids when they have them.

But if I do have my own kids, I hope my friends want to do the same. I want to raise my kids with cousins, even if they're not related by blood. I want to have people I can lean on and can lean on me throughout this whole journey. I want a communal family where we all have each other's backs and no one is ever alone through the process. I want to be there for as much of my friends' kids lives as I am with my own. I want big family barbecues and pool parties and sleepovers where everyone's all over the place and get no sleep because they're too busy playing games and watching movies. I want trips to zoos and parks and carnivals where it's more like class trips than a family day out. I want to be able to pay group pricing for events because it's not just me and my kids and SO, but three of my friends' families because we all do stuff together. I just want to have a big closeknit family even if we're not related by blood.

the thing about millennials who don’t want kids is I feel like a lot of them are deeply On Board for their friends’ kids

like I’m among the minority of my friends in definitely for sure wanting kids someday

but each of my parenthood-eschewing friends has claimed a different role in my future offspring’s life and they seem very excited to play it

so we as a generation may have fewer children

but I feel like they’ll be the most supported and loved children imaginable