Paywall removed: https://archive.is/anyBg
Like Ms. McKay, a growing number of U.S. adults say they are unlikely to raise children, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center. When the survey was conducted in 2023, 47 percent of those younger than 50 without children said they were unlikely ever to have children, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2018.
When asked why kids were not in their future, 57 percent said they simply didn’t want to have them. Women were more likely to respond this way than men (64 percent vs. 50 percent). Further reasons included the desire to focus on other things, like their career or interests; concerns about the state of the world; worries about the costs involved in raising a child; concerns about the environment, including climate change; and not having found the right partner.
My kids are similar ages and I think non-parents assume we are insulting them we we state how difficult parenting is. It’s an objective fact that having kids is hard, they make every activity at least twice as difficult.
For example. I had to travel for work recently. 12 hours of travelling total, including 4 hours in traffic. Because the kids weren’t there, it was really easy.
Another example. My MS in engineering feels like it was nothing compared to the work I’ve put in for the almost 8 years our first has been alive.
Which seems like I’m making fun of people without kids for thinking normal life is easy. Nope, my perception is warped and everyone has their own perception of life’s difficulties.