Not wanting children

[teagrrl]

So, who here does not want kids?

*raises hand*

Feel free to discuss anything childless/childfree-related - or post the reasons behind your decision if you feel like it.

[Craft Forums]

[sarabell]

what about wanting to put them back after the fact?!?
and i don't mean on my side.....

[teagrrl]

:-)

[lizzymahoney]

I didn't want children for the first twenty years. Then I knew I shouldn't have them for another twenty, and by then it was moot. Surgery of the irreversible kind.

I would probably have been a good mother.

If my life partners, two of them, had been responsible and capable of holding a job or keeping house it might have been different. But I knew I would have to continue to work while raising both a child and a man-boy. Absolutely no doubt that I would have come home to horrid stenches and befouled babies with no clean diapers and empty bellies. The dads were, why not the kids.

And the way I am with pets and plants and artwork, I don't want anyone else to have mine because they won't care for whatever properly. It gets worse with kids.

Mostly, I chose to view it as not an option for me. Not something I hold against the world, but a pragmatic choice to avoid pregnancy during most of my life.

[brdgt]

Childfree and happy :)

I just tell people, "as soon as I start actually liking children, then maybe I'll consider having one."

[zbann]

Most of the time I do not want children, but occassionally the idea of having a baby makes me happy. (I am 29 and it happens around the same time each month--I think it's just my biology)
I am married to a great guy who doesn't like kids. We have two dogs and they are enough responsibility for us.
I just babysit my neices when I want a kid. Best birthcontrol ever!

[kissmyknitz]

Didn't think I'd ever want one, but after my 33rd birthday I find myself thinking about it more. I think I really do want at least one... o, guess I shouldn't have responded!! *hand goes down quickly*

[Chelsea]

I used to not want any either. I think it was mainly because I wasn't ready. I would occasionally have that feeling of wanting one, then I would see a crying kid in the grocery store and that quickly switched my mind back to normal.

But the past two years (I'm 26) I've noticed that the crying babies don't bother me, and the feeling of wanting a baby has stuck. But that's not the reason for my post, since I DO want children.

I just think it's interesting to see the different reasons. Like how my 18 year old sister in law said "I hate kids, never having them" Might change when she is ready for kids, or it might not.

One of my aunts never had kids. She died 10 years ago from breast cancer. I wish I would've known why she never had kids....like if she physically couldn't or she never really wanted them.

Our family isn't one to talk about ANYthing, so with the way she treated me and my cousins, I'm thinking maybe she couldn't have kids at all...or maybe we were HER birth control :) able to send us back when she was ready to be normal again. I just wish I could ask her.

[zbann]

I hope my post didn't sound like I don't like my neices--they are just a handful and alot of responsibility. I really enjoy the time we spend together I also just know that I couldn't do it all the time. My dogs drive me nuts and I can just crate them and go out for a cup of tea--can't do that to a human baby.

The nice thing about having neices but no kids of my own is that I enjoy our time spoiling them and taking them to fun events, but when they get tired and cranky, I can send them back to my sisters!

[sunshine_fix]

Sometimes I think I might want kids someday...but most of the time I just want to travel and stuff and you can't do that with kids. Maybe it's just because I'm young and in college and I'm not ready for that. Kids seem to be a lot of work. I was an only child and grew up with an alchoholic mother and apathetic father. Maybe they weren't ready for me. Who knows. They're cool now, though.