Life from a different perspective

My cleaning lady asked me today how many kids I have. An interesting question - when people don't have anything to talk about they revert to discussing their children.
"I don't have children," I told her.
"When?" She asked me.
Another interesting question.
"Normally it takes about 9 months so if I am to embark on the mission, in about 9 months + give or take a couple of days," I said.
She smiled. "Is it you who doesn't want kids or your wife?"
"It's me" I said and puzzled over her look of astonishment.
'What is your problem?' She wanted to ask me.

"Why?" She said after a few seconds of carefully studying me under wrinkled eyebrows.
"Why not?" I answered, "Why have children? Why go through this - what has been described as a wonderful - experience? Why not go to Paris in the Spring or to Aruba in the Fall? Why not write another book or get a better job? Why not sell the house and get into an Ivy school?"
"Yes - your children will love you," she said, "they will respect and help you."
"And what if they don't?" I asked. "What if they move to California or Frankfurt or Tokyo and I get to see them only once every couple of years? What will happen when they are all grown and my life is thrown back into the same corner as before?"
You have children so that you can experience life - is probably the more appropriate way to look at it - to experience the miracle of birth, life, joy and tragedy, learning and teaching. It's a matter of choice, a matter of perception. It's life according to you. Well then, if I choose not to at the present moment, is something the matter with me? If my present perception differs from yours, should I yield to yours simply because you said so?
"Maybe next month," I told her, "then again, maybe not."