I'm a man and I'm not having kids (and not getting married). Most of my family gasps in horror when I say that, like it's the pinnacle of manhood to raise children, and if you don't do it, you are deficient or selfish in some way. That somehow you are disrespecting your whole genetic line by refusing to carry it on. You are looked down on as somehow not a real man who did what a man is supposed to do .

I'm in my 40s now, and the older I get the bigger of a loser I seem to become in many judgmental eyes. They won't actually say this to your face, they mostly talk about it amongst themselves, but you can tell when talking to them that they think less of you.

I'm not going to cave to this societal pressure and shaming, but I'm wondering how other men deal with this, and the idea that passing on your genes is gigantically important for some reason. Just to piss people off even more, I'll be proud of taking a stand right here and ending the genetic line with me that extends from the distant past to today, because, well, fuck this place.