Why I May Not Have Kids

I may not have children.

I have always wanted to have a baby ever since my mum brought my little sister home from the hospital. I’ve always liked the idea of being a mother and it’s something that I knew, just knew, I always wanted to be. Sometimes you just know what you want and this is one thing I’ve very rarely wavered on.

But now I have.

Theresa May just became our un-elected Prime Minister and I am terrified of her record.

LGBT Rights: She may have voted for Gay Marriage rights in 2013, but her record shows she doesn’t like LGBT people. She voted against same-sex couples adopting, she voted against repealing Section 28; legislation that bans the discussion and education of homosexuality in schools. In 2008 she voted for a bill enforcing a ‘male role model’ in the case of IVF making it difficult for lesbian couples to have children. In 2004 she did vote in favour of civil partnerships, but somehow missed all four votes regarding the Gender Recognition Act allowing trans people to change their gender.

She doesn’t care about this vital community of human beings. My future children could be gay or trans and they may grow up in a world shaped by this woman.

Human Rights and Immigration:

In 2014 she and her Home Office used the scandal of a cheating scam at one school to deport 48,000 international students. One cheating scam at one school to her meant 48,000 people had to go.

Non-EU immigrants are now required to earn a minimum £35,000 in order to remain in this country. That’s interesting, because most white people of my generation can barely scrape that, so I wonder how she expects immigrants to be able to maintain that household budget. That’s going to rise by £500 by 2018 and £35,000 is already £8,000 higher than the average British salary. She expects immigrants to earn more on average than people born here which is unfair.

She rejected the European Union's proposal of compulsory refugee quotas. She said that it was important to help people living in war-zone regions and refugee camps but "not the ones who are strong and rich enough to come to Europe". What does that mean, exactly? If you are a refugee who managed to get through war zones and survive all the way to Europe, then you don’t actually deserve our help? Refugees that were rich aren’t anymore. They are broken and scared and have left all their wealth and homes behind because their homes are now torn apart by war. It’s our duty as human beings to look after other human beings.

Speaking of which, she wants to get rid of the Human Rights Act. My children will be human beings and they deserve rights. I want my children to grow up in a diverse and free society. I want them to have friends from other cultures and learn from them. I want my children to have the right to travel and live in other countries. I want other people to have the right to live in mine.

She was also voted Islamophobe of the year in 2015 by the Islamic Human Rights Commission. I don’t want my children living in a society ran by people who believe followers of Islam are lesser than everyone else.

War:

She voted in favour of the War in Iraq in 2003. She voted in favour of the Syria Airstrikes last December.

She’s in favour of war, specifically war in non-white, non-Christian countries. I don’t need to explain that one.

It might seem overly dramatic, but the truth is, the last two years have made me rethink having children. I see benefits being cut, I read stories everyday about people struggling to feed their children. A food bank opened up half a mile down the road from me. Most of my friends still live at home because they can’t afford to move out, most of us are struggling to get into a decent job with a stable income. Generation X and Baby Boomers love to talk about the struggles they went through from their two or three bedroom homes and salaried jobs. It’s a fun way to mock my generation.

Here’s the thing old folks, you had your struggle. Your struggle is a thing of the past and my struggle to have a basic form of income is now. Just because you went through hard times doesn’t mean my hard times can be dismissed. Your struggle happened decades ago and you came out the other side with everything. Don’t you dare hold the struggles of war and rationing and riots over my generation like you are better than us for surviving these things. You aren’t better than us for surviving these things. You are certainly not better than us for deciding that your struggle makes ours irrelevant. You glorify the phrase ‘fought for the future’. Fight for my fucking future then if you care so much. I might not have children because of this world you created. I have a great education but can’t get a good job in this world you created. The horror the generation under me will experience will no doubt be worse and they can’t vote yet for anything that can save them. You can’t tell me you fought for my future and then mockingly take away any future my generation has. Fight for our fucking future. Start looking at the bigger picture and start thinking beyond yourself. You had your time, and you’ve voted systematically over the years to take away everyone else’s time. Fight for our fucking future because I can’t stand the idea of my children growing up in this political nightmare you created and Theresa May is potentially going to wield it to her advantage to stop social advancement.

I want to be a mother. I can’t do this to the children I don’t even have.

(Image is one of my favourite photographs of my sister and I.)

#red #politics #future #babyboomers #generationx #humanrights #kids #theresamay #primeminister