Childfree vs Childless

This is my first post and it is starting with a rant. I went to the hairdresser yesterday. I needed my usual mop chop, I have the sort of hair that won't behave. Anyway, before I go off on a tangent, warning people it can happen, this is about Childfree and not hair.

The woman in the hairdresser asks if I have children, obviously wants to strike up a conversation. I say no and I'm not planning on having any. My partner and I are Childfree by choice. Then I laugh and say I am a school teacher and I have enough kids in my life. It was a joke, but I should have realised that if she had a sense of humour, she wasn't aware of it, because then she dropped her bombshell. She gives my a strange look and says "How can you be a school teacher if you don't like children?"

What is it with people? I don't want children and I am Childfree by choice. That does not mean I don't like children. How rude? I quickly put her in her place on that score. Let's just say it killed the conversation.

People just don't get the Childfree thing. There is this assumption that if you don't want kids you don't like them. I do like kids, I just don't have an overwhelming desire to populate the world.

Why do people think they have the right to ask? I've actually been asked by another rude person "Oh, is you or him?" Unbelievable! Rude!!!! They assume that not wanting children means the same as being infertile?

There is a real misunderstanding in society that Childfree is the same as Childless. We are not children haters! Childless is the unable to have children or not having had them yet. There is a difference. I have been in the teaching profession for nearly 12 years, I do like children. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to spawn. My life is complete, I'm happy, Angus is happy, we don't need or want to have children.

All I ask is for is a little pre-thought from these bulldozers of people's feelings and personal choices say their piece.