Woman's Family Keeps Pushing Her To Have Kids, So She 'Gives Birth' To Her Dog

There is still old-school thinking circulating among millennial parents and family members that if you're young, in love and married, it is your duty to have a baby.

This pressure can often be amplified with things like our social media feeds being flooded with high school friends' infants wearing stupid hats, making funny noises or sitting with Cheerios on their face.

Carrie Jansen and her husband Nic of Anamosa, Iowa, are tired of hearing their relatives pressure them into parenthood.

Jansen told Huffington Post, "We hear the usual comments, usually from aunts, our moms, and our grandmothers. Questions like 'When are you guys going to start having kids?' And 'Now is a good time to have one, that way your child and (insert cousin's kid's name) will be around the same age!"

So, they decided to take the conversation into their own hands and surprise their family with their own baby photo...

...of their golden retriever named Leelu.

Jansen shared the photo on Imgur this past Tuesday, and it's gained over 728,000 views since.

Together, Nic and Carrie are raising Leelu to be the puppy child of their dreams, and in the meantime, they have no plans to have any real (human) babies any time soon.

Jansen explains, "The [comment] that bugs me is the, 'You'll change your minds someday!' Because I've felt this way about it for years and I'm not going to change my mind."

But don't say she doesn't love kids. Jansen works at an elementary school and said,

I love seeing the kids and interacting with them. I would never discourage anyone from having kids if they want them. My sister Becca has an 18-month-old boy and I love being an aunt to him. I just don't want to be a mother ― I've never seen it for my life.

The decision to have a child is innately personal, not obligatory just because you're a female or in a happy relationship.

Nic and Carrie have the perfect family with their baby Leelu, and to that I say congratulations!

Citations: My husband and I have been married 3 years and everyone is bugging us about having a baby. Close enough right? (Imgur), This Wife Had The Best Response To People Bugging Her To Have Kids (Huffington Post)