I commend you for waiting for the right man and wanting children with him, not settling just because. When kids are a result of the love between two loving respecting parents, they are a gift to this world. They will absorb the love and kindness from their family and radiate it back to the world!
Sadly, because we see the opposite, ie broken homes, miserable children who grow to be miserable and often angry adults, we have become cynical of the whole notion of family and kids.
You should never feel any guilt or shame whatsoever. It's people who are either too selfish and cold or too cowardly to want to share their life and love that try to pressure everyone else around. Wish you well in your quest!

Good post! Your comment about maintaining the population (two people = two kids) is why we are so dependent on immigration these days. If we as a population would have more kids immigration could be reduced.

.....while I agree with most of what you're saying, your math is way off. The world is already overpopulated. If the current population was decimated, there would still be more humans than necessary trampling around. Everyone having two kids would definitely continue the problem. People in Europe and Asia are way ahead of us; most of them only have one child, occasionally two, and maybe adopt one from third-world countries where they would otherwise die.

I can understand the desire to breed, it is natural. But to be a good parent, you need to be aware of the world around you, and bringing a huge pile of kids into the world is adding to the problem. These people are called 'breeders' because that's what they do. It's not an insult, simply a statement of fact.

You rock. I agree with you 100%.

Reverse racism?

The world isn't overpopulated, Asia is overpopulated as are parts of Europe.

Canada is not overpopulated. If Canada is overpopulated, why are we bringing in 250k+ immigrants and refugees a year? Canadians should stop having babies in their prudently managed countries because Eurasia cannot manage itself? Communism is great, boys and girls, you stop having babies to "redistribute" the wealth!

"If the current population was decimated, there would still be more humans than necessary trampling around. "

If the current population was decimated, population = 0, no?

"Everyone having two kids would definitely continue the problem. People in Europe and Asia are way ahead of us; most of them only have one child, occasionally two, and maybe adopt one from third-world countries where they would otherwise die."

Canada's birth rate is currently less than 2 and we are underpopulated, that's why we need immigration to solve our population problem. The reason that some countries (such as China) have resorted to population control is because they are overpopulated--this is not currently a problem in Canada.

"I can understand the desire to breed, it is natural. But to be a good parent, you need to be aware of the world around you, and bringing a huge pile of kids into the world is adding to the problem. These people are called 'breeders' because that's what they do. It's not an insult, simply a statement of fact."

Nobody said it's good to bring a "huge pile of kids" (did you read the post?) but 1 or 2 shouldn't be a problem if everyone did the same.

So what's your solution? We shouldn't have children anymore and only adopt from abroad so that in one or two generations, Canada will be only inhabited by foreigners? This is not only ridiculous and unfair, it is enabling the irresponsible behaviour of some countries that allow their populations to over-reproduce. Trust me, you can stop our local population from reproducing all you want, it won't solve the problem if other countries (especially, third world) grow at an exponential rate. The solution is for these countries with population problems to curb their growth rate (we can help by providing education and birth controls), and for us to continue with our currently LOW birth rate (as well as using international adoption and immigration to some extent).

Your ideas might have some merit but the proposed solutions are either impractical, infeasible or won't solve the problem at all.

"Asia is overpopulated, Canada is not"..... are you serious???
We only have one planet. It is irrelevant how many countries we divide this planet into, the amount of fresh water, arable land, and oxygen in the atmosphere remains the same. You make it sound as if people simply need space to live, without vast acres of resources to support their needs. You have a lot to learn about the world around you.

Consider this, for example..... Metro Vancouver has something like 2 million inhabitants. Yet in order to generate power, we need to make a new dam at the opposite corner of the province, on a river that does not flow anywhere near us. This will wipe out farmlands and homes of people, including aboriginals, that have lived there for centuries... because we need electricity to live. That's right, it doesn't just come out of a socket in the wall. Sure, people can live without power.... millions do.... but guess what? That's just the tip of the ice berg. What about petroleum? What about metals? What about food and water, and more water to grow food? These are the questions you should start asking yourself if you want to see the big picture.

-Sorry

"decimated" means knocked down to 10%, from the Latin 'deca' =ten.

Give me ONE piece of evidence that Canada (or any other part of the world) is "underpopulated". I'm sure you formed your opinion on lots of evidence, but I'm only asking for one piece. I don't know how this could even be proved, but go ahead and humor me.

-Sorry

no, you're being selfish for NOT having children and letting your genes be represented among future generations. The people that ARE having children are more often fanatical and those living on the margins. Highly functioning educated people have a responsibility to give back to the world with their genes IMO. They are disproportionately represented in the pool.