Screaming Child in Aisle 4 started as a coping mechanism. I was in my 30s and constantly holding friends new babies and asking God when it was going to be my turn. From time to time I would find myself in a situation that made me think “This is why I shouldn’t have kids.” So, I started posting them online with totally randomly chosen numbers.

My goal is to turn this into a coffee table book, possibly more than one. I thought I only had 101 reasons, then I started working the book and I might be able to get a second and even third one. As soon as they are available, I’ll post a link here.

One of those early reasons was that I don’t “do” sick well. The only drawback for me posting these semi-publicly were the intense moms who felt like it was their entire job in life to birth babies and raise children and could not comprehend someone who did not want to do that. There were 1 or 2 people in particular that nearly always felt the need to add a comment to my posts. Typically something along the lines of “It’s different when they’re yours.” I.e. when the sick, whining child is yours you don’t mind sitting in a chair listening to them whine. I know that this is true for a lot of people, but for me the question was always:

What if it’s not?