I want to take part in this discussion somehow, but I don't like the tone of these childless people in this article that think they are somehow special or left out of life and need a support group. It's just one of many choices in life, and whether you are the odd-man out because of your child-status depends on the age and your circle of friends.
My new husband and I are in no hurry to have children. We like children, but aren't sure right now that we should have them now... we married late, I am the 'she' and I am 37. We have much we'd like to do in life, for the next year or two we'd like to spend our summers horseback riding and for now, children would interfere with much of it. It's more complicated than that, certainly, but we just aren't drawn to parenthood, and don't know if we ever will be.
My best childhood friend, same age, just had her first baby. In our circle of friends, she is more the odd man out right now if anyone, because most of our friends with children did babies years ago and theirs are half-grown. I can see that for the next several years, we may not have a lot in common. But most of my other friendships adapted to new children, and if this one also can, it will.
Fertility drops off after 35. Way off after 40. Look into it. Getting pregnant isn't a sure thing.
My wife and I have been married over 24 years...and yes we do not have children either. There were a number of reasons but when it got right down to it we simply did not have a desire to have children. And we thought that important -- for the children, they are a huge investment in time and energy and we were both children of much older parents, who didn't have that much time or energy left.
We don't make it a cause celebre or advocate our choices for anyone else - it's probably the wrong choice for most people, because most people, I suspect, really want children. And we don't apologize for our decisions either. It just worked for us. That's it.
My wife and I have been married over 24 years...and yes we do not have children either. There were a number of reasons but when it got right down to it we simply did not have a desire to have children. And we thought that important -- for the children, they are a huge investment in time and energy and we were both children of much older parents, who didn't have that much time or energy left.
We don't make it a cause celebre or advocate our choices for anyone else - it's probably the wrong choice for most people, because most people, I suspect, really want children. And we don't apologize for our decisions either. It just worked for us. That's it.