You don't want babies and you think parenting should be licensed?

       A lot of little girls dream of getting married and having children. They plan out these milestones in their life at a fairly early age, sometimes marking each event with an age by which they want them accomplished. I don't know if it is nature or nurture that makes these rites a high priority in the general female brain, but it was never a priority I had.
     I was not the type of little girl or teenager who thought about these things. I listened to my girlfriends in our pre-teen and teen years fantasize about weddings, children, homes to buy and baby names; meanwhile I was fantastizing about living in far-off exotic locales.
     I had my healthy share of crushes, boyfriends and sexual encounters growing up. I would play M.A.S.H. for hours on end at sleepovers and daydream about what my perfect mate would be like. But proposals, marriage and having babies never entered into those desires.
     When I used to express to my mum that I didn't want to get married or have kids she would always counter with "....ahh well things will change." As though, someday I would wake up and all of a sudden change my mind on these issues. I went through my twenties and am now in my mid-thirties and my views have not altered all that much.  The marriage thing, I'm a little more flexible on. I'm not striving for marriage, but I'm not as close-minded to it. If the partner is right and marriage feels like a natural loving progression...well, I'll entertain it. I don't want kids. That hasn't changed.
     Check out Scott Meyer's take on it.

You can find more of his stuff at Basic Instructions.

      At this stage in my life it's time to go ahead with Tubal Ligation. A permanent procedure to ensure I never have kids (yes, it can be reversed, but it's complicated and expensive to do that in Canada). I've pumped my body full of birth control for almost 20 years and that's enough.
      As I've shard my decision with close friends and family the feedback has mostly been supportive, however, I did have one girlfriend question me. After I told her I was going through with this procedure, her initial response, which was delivered in a disgusted tone was "Why?". I explained my reasoning (which is more in-depth than just wanting to get off the pill) and she really didn't have much more to say on the topic.
     As this topic has been on the front burner of conversation amongst my friends it has also got me wondering why don't we have licensing for parents? In the daily news, I see accounts of truly despicable parenting. These horrible stories not only solidify some of my reasons for not wanting children but also make me wonder why the act of becoming a parent isn't regulated somehow? There are laws and protocols in place in modern society for obtaining a driver's license, voting, pet licenses etc. There are oodles of laws across Canada that seem crazy and over-reactionary, for example did you know it's illegal to water your grass when it's raining in Nova Scotia ....yes illegal!  Yet any dipshit can have sex and become a parent. This should be regulated, licensed, monitored (is that too far?)
     Is this a moral debate? Why haven't we addressed this? Am I talking about a dictatorship? I'm not talking about controlling how many kids a couple has, if any, I'm talking about controlling WHO is granted the privilege of being a parent.
Thoughts?