Friends with kids

I (and my life partner!) decided to NOT have kids. There are many reasons for this and I'm not going into them here and now. Unfortunately, our decision has caused a lot of turmoil for a lot of people over the years. Many have tried to change our minds or make constant comments to damage my self-esteem. (I know that wasn't the primary intent, but thanks anyway--great way to show friendship or family love.)

The last time I scrapbooked with two of my girlfriends, they gave me photos of the kids. I started thinking about it, and we hardly ever see or hang out with the kids anymore. But we hang out with our friends (the parents) pretty often. Okay, not often enough, but pretty often anyway. I mentioned to M that I had some concern that our friends think we don't like their kids. They're at the fun ages, so I wouldn't mind being around them more. M thought that the friends might be concerned about my health. I'm good around smaller groups of kids; I just seem to get sick around the gatherings, like the birthday parties with LOTS of germ incubators, I mean kids.

Then we realized that we are probably just getting our friends when they have sitters, so they just have other plans for us. I hope that is the case and they don't all really think we hate kids. I guess only time will tell. Maybe we'll have to go out of our way to include the kids in some things at the new house. (a few at a time?! Kids are exhausting!)