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Published:
2015-11-24
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Childfree

Summary:

The reasons why Chara does not want kids.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)

Work Text:

Chara does not want children. They’ve been asked a few times, usually by well-meaning people who don’t know them all that well, and their response has always been an emphatic “hell no”. Subsequent comments about them changing their mind when they get older were usually responded to with a punch to the jaw or nearest jaw equivalent.

They don’t want kids. They know they don’t want kids, and they’re never going to want kids. Even if they were to change their mind someday, assuming that they will just because they’re ‘supposed’ to want them pisses them off beyond measure. Don’t tell them they have to do anything just because somebody else thinks it’s what they ‘should’ do.

They do not want children for several important, well thought through reasons:

First, that they would suck at parenting. Really, abysmally suck at it to the point of reducing their child’s life expectancy. They’ve gotten a little better at taking care of themself since they were a kid relying on Asriel for all of their emotional support, and their coping skills are a little healthier now, but the idea of being fifty percent responsible for a baby’s wellbeing is daunting at the very best, and more often completely ridiculous. Nobody should put them in a position of any responsibility, much less responsibility for a tiny person.

Second, that they don’t necessarily like people all that much still, and that will probably never change. A child deserves a parent who will love and care for them, and Chara can’t completely guarantee that they won’t just hate them for being like everyone else. And that’s a risk they shouldn’t take when considering whether or not to create an entire new person relying on them for affection. They still remember their own childhood, after all. They won’t put anyone else through that.

Third, that the only person they would want to raise a child with is Asriel, and they’re pretty sure they’re not biologically compatible. Even if the differences between a monster’s and a human’s biology weren’t so vast as to make crossbreeding pretty obviously not a thing, Asriel is so much bigger than Chara (who the hell actually is seven feet, how is that a height that people are), and their previous experimentation in their teenage years so colossally awkward plus somewhat physically painful, that the idea of doing the necessary deed just makes them wince. They could adopt a kid, Chara realizes, bypassing both of those problems pretty neatly, but that wouldn’t allow Asriel to age, and the idea of Asriel stuck as a young adult forever as his child matures past him sounds pretty depressing to them. They would never put him through that, even if Asriel were to say it was okay.

Fourth, that they cannot completely guarantee that Asriel wouldn’t try to name their baby Asra. Or worse, Chariel. They know he’s not his father, but he hasn’t displayed a much better sense of naming in the past, and the fear of him carrying on the family tradition lurks in Chara’s heart.

That may be the most important reason of all.

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