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Going childless in the U.S.

Connemara

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I overheard some tweedy types at Starbucks today (prob. graduate students or professors) going on about the increasing numbers of childless couples in the U.S. One of the guys said that 1 in 5 women over 40 do not have any children.

This seems wrong to me. U.S. culture almost demands children. I do not know a lot of childless adults (although there are more than a few in my immediate family).

Thoughts on this? Do SFers come into contact regularly with 30 to 50 somethings without children?
 

grimslade

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Didn't you say you'd never reproduce?
 

Connemara

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Originally Posted by grimslade
Didn't you say you'd never reproduce?
I don't particularly want to. I'm pretty sure that anything made with my seed would be a heartless monster.
 

Jumbie

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I honestly don't think I know any adults 40+ voluntarily without kids. The one couple I know ended up adopting.

I'm considering not having any myself. Have to work on that idea with the fiancee.
 

grimslade

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Originally Posted by kwilkinson
Wouldn't, or couldn't?

You forgot shouldn't.
sly.gif


So, Conne, if you don't want kids, what are you on about?
 

grimslade

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Originally Posted by Jumbie
I honestly don't think I know any adults 40+ voluntarily without kids. The one couple I know ended up adopting.

I'm considering not having any myself. Have to work on that idea with the fiancee.


You should have kids. They give you a reason to live.
 

yachtie

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They're all spoiled left-wingers anyway so who cares.
wink.gif
 

Dewey

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There were strong incentives to breed when 19 of 20 Americans lived on farms. Kids could feed chickens at 4 & after that, they more than paid their way to adulthood.

These days, there are strong financial incentives to not have kids. Probably it has never been more expensive to feed, clothe, amuse, and school children. Kids are very expensive, and the state will take them from you if you work them too hard before they are 14. So I'm not surprised if it's true that more and more people are having none.
 

Pennglock

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I don't understand marraige without kids. What other reason but popping out babies is there for maintaining committment to one parter for the rest of your life? I would not be able to keep it together without kids, nor would I really want to...
 

hamish5178

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I have an aunt/uncle couple on both sides sans children. As well as a married god-father without kids. All are happily married. The 1 in 5 sounds right to me, but who knows (google).
 

Teh Style God

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If only! The only thing worse than the economic state in the etats-unis is the youth's intellectual state.

God, what an unpleasant generation.
 

Connemara

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Originally Posted by Pennglock
I don't understand marraige without kids. What other reason but popping out babies is there for maintaining committment to one parter for the rest of your life? I would not be able to keep it together without kids, nor would I really want to...
Umm...love for another person? This is a weird statement Penn.
 

Connemara

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Originally Posted by Teh Style God
If only! The only thing worse than the economic state in the etats-unis is the youth's intellectual state. God, what an unpleasant generation.
I am sort of still a "youth" but don't worry, I am a genius.
 

itsstillmatt

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We decided not to have them for a number of reasons, most already covered.
 

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