Ina Garten ‘Couldn’t Understand Why People Had Kids’ After Her Own ‘Horrible Childhood’

> In her new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, the Barefoot Contessa star reveals that her “horrible childhood” in Stamford, Conn., was filled with emotional and physical abuse from her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg. So by the time she was settled into her marriage with husband Jeffrey Garten, she had long decided she would never have children.
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> “I grew up in a family that wasn’t a happy family, so I couldn’t understand why people had kids,” Ina tells PEOPLE for this week’s cover story. “Nobody had any fun in my family. Now I understand it, but at the time, when I was 25 and 30, I just didn’t. It was nothing I really wanted to do.”She cites a saying that explains her situation: “What goes in early goes in deep.”
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> “After my experience, my mind was closed to the possibility of having my own child. Jeffrey and I were content with our choices and our life,” she adds.
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> Today, Ina has no regrets. “Dolly Parton once opened up to Oprah Winfrey about why she didn’t have children. She said, ‘If I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done.’ I feel the same way,” writes Ina.
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Lmao, same

I had a child because I knew it was a selfish act. It was something I wanted. Nobody asked for him to be born except for me (and obviously his father).

And so I make sure every single day that he knows he was wanted, and that he comes before me. Because I chose that, selfishly.

I wish more parents realised this. You have to WANT it. Passionately. I always knew I wanted to be a mother ever since I was a child. But children aren’t needed for everybody. They’re not something you haphazardly decide on last minute or allow yourself to be forced into. It’s truly all or nothing.