My parents keep treating our decision not to have children as a phase. How do we answer?
Family“You'll feel differently when your friends start having babies,” Dad said after my partner and I told our parents we aren't planning to have children.
We had chosen to say it clearly because Mum kept sending listings for houses with an extra bedroom. I used to reply with a joke, so I understand why she didn't take those replies as a decision.
Now she says she won't ask again, but she ends visits with, “I'm saving the little cot, just in case.” Dad says we should let her have hope rather than be blunt. I don't want a future child used as the assumption behind every conversation about where we live or how we spend our time.
We aren't asking them to share the preference. How do we acknowledge their disappointment without agreeing that our answer needs to remain provisional for their sake?