College Student Plans Placenta-Free Future

Looking forward to a Pampers-free lifestyle

We live in a society that has a very structured idea about what course your life should take. You go to school, you get married, you have kids. Despite the "traditional" nuclear families being fewer, the expectation that you will, someday, have children, is still there.
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Writing this article, I merely Googled the word “childfree” and a whole plethora of organizations, support-groups and resources for childfree parents popped up. Kitchener-Waterloo even has its own chapter of “No Kidding!” a social club and support group for adults sick of friends who can only discuss potty training and ballet recitals.

The number of couples that are child-free by choice is on the rise. It’s clear I won’t be alone in my Pampers-less lifestyle; however, it’s also clear that those who choose not to have children are still marginalized, as though there’s something wrong with them.

I don’t hate children — I just don’t have the patience for them. Far too many people have children for entirely the wrong reasons: they want to carry on the family name, their up-bringing prescribes it, they don’t want to die alone, etc. So what if my biological clock never starts to tick? The world is overpopulated as it is. Humans do need to procreate to continue the species — but should everyone necessarily do it?
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Having children for the wrong reasons is worse than not having them at all.
People who have children, and have them for the right reasons — actually wanting to raise a good person, for one — should be applauded; but so should those who choose for equally right reasons not to procreate. I’m not selfish for choosing to have a childless future — sure, I’ll have more time, money, freedom and space than my child-bearing counterparts — but, frankly, it would be easier to go the more traditional route. . . .

I am so happy to see an article on childfreedom appear in a college newspaper. This is one place I feel the childfree issue should receive attention, but is largely ignored. Perhaps it is because few take the chilfree choice seriously when made by the young. My husband and I realized we were childfree at 18 - four years before he made it permanent. One member of the NYC Chapter joined at 19 - eleven years after she realized she didn't want children. If you have given the matter serious thought, I do think one is able to make a real and lasting decision - especially when it is often less of a decision than a realization.

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