Census: Record Number of Women Childless

Yahoo! News ^ | 10/24/2003 | GENARO C. ARMAS

[Pedantic_Lady]

I don't see anything wrong with that; people who don't want kids definitely shouldn't have them.

[mdittmar]

Shouldn't the headline be,"Census: Record Number of Women and Men Childless"?

[ServesURight]

It's kind of sad, though.

You're not young forever. When these parents hit their mid-50s and 60s they'll be thinking twice.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Perhaps, yes, but they don't usually regret their decision. I work with a woman in her late 40s who doesn't have children...unlike many women who are childless by choice, she thinks small children are actually evil. A good friend of mine here had a baby 2 months ago and she came in to the office with me last week to talk to the boss and have a few questions about maternity leave answered. She left the baby with me at my desk, and naturally I couldn't work while holding a baby, so I toted him around the office so everyone could see him. Most of the people there ooohed and awwwed over him (and he's PRECIOUS) but this woman actually recoiled in horror and begged me to keep the baby far from her.

Uhhh...sure. More cuddle time for ME, then! A lot of these women absolutely don't regret their choices, but people like me (who WANT children) can't understand where they're coming from because wanting children is so natural to us.

[RightWhale]

40 years ago marriage and children was the thing to do. Now for many it isn't. Economics and high population numbers combine to bring this reality. Perhaps some areas have negative population growth but they are far from depopulated and other areas more than make up the difference. Everyone should be free to start a family--it is a human right according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights but everyone should be free to not start a family if they so choose.

[Az Joe]

She needs a a good shrink. Something not right there.

[ServesURight]

Well at least they're making a decision instead of having Planned Parenthood make it for them.

[stands2reason]

Men don't have children silly! ;-)

[stands2reason]

Note the tagline...

[Centurion2000]

Anne Hare and her husband made a momentous decision three years ago: They would not have children. It's not that they don't like kids, she says. They simply don't want to alter the lifestyle they enjoy.

short sighted idiots. Who would you rather have choose your retirement home when you get that old ? Your flesh and blood or a complete stranger ?

[reed_inthe_wind]

She needs to get over herself and rediscover love.

[BSunday]

That headline reminds me of a short story I once read in one of those science fiction pulp anthology magazines. It had to do with some kind of epidemic of spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) in the world, and how that pregnant women got so rare, and the world population was threatened, that having a baby turned into the number one most desired thing on every couples list. Abortion was virutally eliminated and all the abortion clinics closed down. Turns out it was some kind of virus of some sort, released by some scientist or other, who after the world wide attitude shift, released some kind of antidote (no charge). Quite interesting.

[DumpsterDiver]

but people like me (who WANT children) can't understand where they're coming from because wanting children is so natural to us.

I believe you're right about the not being able to "understand where they're coming from because wanting children is so natural to us". I'm a 58 year old female who never had a desire to be a parent. I doubt if either side will understand the other, but that doesn't really bother me. What disturbs me is where the article stated that "last year about 33 percent of all births were to unmarried women". I wish those kids had dads at home with them.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Sounds a bit like the Handmaid's Tale.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Me too...I think kids deserve a father...but sometimes it's better if dad isn't around. My father-in-law was a horrible parent and eventually left my mother-in-law when my husband was 16 and though my husband is permanently scarred by his father's abuse, I believe it would have been far worse had his father stayed.

[Cicero]

She gets the Darwin award for making her line extinct.

[Pedantic_Lady]

She needs a a good shrink. Something not right there.

She is a bit crazy, but she's one of those weird old English women who keep horses and drive sports cars. It seems to be almost a sub-species here...there are a lot of fortyish and fiftyish English women with horses and Toyota MR2s. Must be genetic.

[joey'smom]

I decided 30 years ago, at the age of 21, never to have kids. Best decision I ever made!!! (p.s. Joey is my Pomeranian -- best kid ever!)

[baseballfanjm]

Yikes, I agree. Recoiling because of a baby? She must have other problems. Therapy would do her some good.