I lurk on the regretful breeders Reddit page, and saw this comment which I thought was brilliant and relevant here (I'm gonna guess she's CF; bolding mine):
"I just recently asked a guy I’m dating why he wants children and his response spoke volumes. It was a two-line crock of nothing-shit-burger
(edit: in the comments she later reveals that he said he wanted two daughters because it would be "cute"), and he actually smiled, proud of himself thinking he was cute and romantic. All I could do was imagine myself in 20 hours of labor (more than once) and 21 years of mothering/slaving for that wack ass reason. Lol yeah, not happening. I’ll break the news soon.
Most people are having kids just to have them. They have no vision for the family. No real reason to procreate. They are not building anything or contributing anything to society - just checking boxes and keeping up with their friends and what society tells them they should do. And then they are surprised when they feel like this about it. The kid ends up having a shit life because their parent is a visionless, selfish, miserable person who was largely irresponsible and doesn’t want them… because no you should not feel like this toward your baby. It’s not normal.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you must.
Just because you can reproduce doesn’t mean you need to reproduce.If you can’t come up with an answer to “why” that is compelling, inspiring, meaningful and gets you excited to bring a life into this world - that can serve as a reminder and anchor, then trust me, we will not go extinct because you decided to keep your genes to yourself!
Stop having kids."