More American women not having children: report

[Ed Barrow]

Source: Reuters

More American women are choosing not to have children than three decades ago, according to a new report.

Nearly 20 percent of older women do not have children, compared to 10 percent in the 1970s, the Pew Research Center said.

"In recent decades, social pressure to play traditional roles has lessened in a broad variety of ways and there is more leeway for individual choice. This could play a part in lowering pressure for people to get married and bear children," said D'Vera Cohn, a co-author of the report.

"Women have more options than in the past to build strong careers and to exercise the choice not to have children," she added in an email.



Read more: http://www.canada.com/life/More+American+women+having+children+report/3211323/story.html

[havocmom]

1. and they are tired

[Go2Peace]

3. You have to think twice to have kids at this time in History

[SunnySong]

17. Seriously this is the best time in human history to raise kids...

I would love to know what polio ridden slave owning child laboring time period was better (I will giove you the seventies but just barely)

[Recursion]

34. Ironically, the 70s were another nadir of American fertility

I was born in 76 and my cohort was smaller than any since the 40s. It's one of the things that defines Gen X.

[glinda]

20. That is it really. Who wants their child to face global environmental meltdown.

[Citizen Worker]

38. Or to be fed into the maw of the war machine.

The beast needs to be fed constantly.

[tularetom]

2. Unfortunately those not having children are I suspect the more educated women

Thus spreading out the shallow end of the gene pool even further and dumbing down the American citizenry below today's scary levels.

[noamnety]

4. Well. That was offensive. (nt)

[Cal Carpenter]

6. For real. I didn't realize education was genetic?

Why don't we just kill off the dumb ignorant ones? :eyes:

[tularetom]

9. To each his/her own. To me this is offensive

http://www.duggarfamily.com/



We're exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth. And these Cletuses are breeding like crazed weasels.

Call it what you want. I call it stupid AND selfish.

Oh well, more cannon fodder for our future resource wars.

[noamnety]

13. You might find the actions of that family offensive.

That doesn't excuse the broadbrush smear that people who can't afford college (i.e. poor people) are stupid.

Nor does it excuse your belief that it's "unfortunate" that educated women aren't doing their part to save the "gene pool" by acting as baby factories. It's sexist, anti-choice, and it promotes the idea that rich people are inherently better than poor people. That doesn't even begin to address that it reeks of eugenics.

[tularetom]

18. Amazing, ain't it, that you can read all that into a no text post

You've accused me of classism, sexism, and you even managed to slip a cute little broad brush oblique Nazi reference of your own into it.

And for what it's worth, I never said educated women should have more children. I think ALL people should have fewer children. That doesn't change the fact that educated women are marrying later in life and as a result deferring having a child in many cases until it's too late.

But I'll be on pins and needles waiting to see what little psychoanalytic snippet you can glean from that statement.

[noamnety]

21. If there was any oblique references that you didn't like

perhaps you should review your post saying it was unfortunate that the wrong sorts of people were reproducing, damaging the "gene pool." I put the appropriate name on that statement, but it was your statement.

"Unfortunately those not having children are I suspect the more educated women thus spreading out the shallow end of the gene pool even further"

eu·gen·ics   

the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).

--------
In truth, we probably agree in other areas much more than we disagree, but this particular post of yours was regrettable, and it might be worth examining where it came from.

[glinda]

23. I have found that poorer do tend to want to have more children because

it seems to fill the need for feeling that there is something of value in their lives.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Or didn't have time to get into a relationship resulting in marriage.

I've gone through a lot of retirees finding many of them without spouses. Just to confirm my suspicion I did a query and found 2147 out of 4718 without a spouse. A lot higher than I expected. Just over 45% appear to be unmarried. And I've been working on this group for a while determining marital and voter status.

[fasttense]

30. Gone through a lot of retirees? Really? Please provide details.

Retiring people want to know.:)

[SunnySong]

19. Yeah no Eugenic arguements around here nothing to see....

Last time I heard that argument somebody had just lit the cross.

[fasttense]

29. Well, actually intelligent children are NOT limited to intelligent mothers.

Remember the bell curve. Humans tend to go back to the norm. So, some smart parents can have stupid children and some stupid parent can have smart children.

So, don't judge a person's intelligence by the intelligence of their children.

[Recursion]

35. Aptitude in some cases seems to resemble a Gaussian distribution, sure

(Though like most presumed Gaussians the actual data points appear bimodal.) But education levels of children stick stubbornly close to those of their parents.

[IrishEyes]

7. I'm one of those women

I'm still young enough to have kids but I don't think I will. I would like to adopt a child some day when I make a little more money and own a house. A husband would be nice to if I find one that I like.

[bertman]

8. I thank you and the planet thanks you. Too bad it won't make any difference. nt

[SocialistLez]

15. Most days I question why I even bother doing "green" things

when most of the people I see could seemingly could care less.

HUGE SUVs, lots of kids, don't use reusable bags at the grocery store, red meat all the time, uses a bunch of paper, doesn't recycle...etc.

[AnnieBW]

10. Not to mention women postponing childbearing until later, infertility

I was one of those who swore that I'd NEVER, EVER give in to my biological clock and feel that I had to have a baby at age 35. Then I turned 35, and we discovered that, between me and my husband, we were infertile. We didn't have the money nor the will to jump through all of the infertility hoops. Besides, he has genetic neurological issues, and we didn't want to pass those along.

If I'd have had the option to freeze my eggs at 24 and have them thaw out at 35, I'd have done it and gotten a sperm donor. Now I'm 45, and I sometimes regret not having kids.

[SocialistLez]

16. Was adoption too expensive? NT

[Crunchy Frog]

24. I froze mine at 35 and thawed them at 45.

I think it's going to become a much more common choice in the future.

[tom_paine]

11. It's 'cause the future's so bright, we gotta wear shades

:rofl:

[aquart]

12. America considers children a woman's punishment for sex.

When its attitude changes, maybe more women will be willing to assume that burden.

[SocialistLez]

14. I'm one of them.

I remember reading in USA Today that the most educated were a bit of a blip.
The most educated were having more....

I am not having kids for a variety of reasons and to "further my career" is one of them.

[Heywood J]

22. Children are expensive these days.

A previous thread put the number at something like $230,000 to raise a child to age 18. That's $12,778 of after-tax pay to come up with each year.

[Frank Booth]

25. The minuses of having a kid seem to outweigh the pluses.

There's the environmental damage. And also, it can be cruel to bring a kid into this world. It's sad to see the joy of a little kid slowly get ground out of her/him until there's nothing left but resignation.

[gauguin57]

26. If I'd had them when I was younger, I think I would have been an ill-prepared, impatient parent.

Once I was mature enough to feel I could handle the world's most demanding job (parent), I was too tired!

Never met Mr. Right; I had often thought about adopting a child as a single person, but I've never made much money and I knew I'd struggle even for the basics of life. I also saw what my single-parent friends went through, and didn't think I had the stuff to do the amazing job they did with their kids. I have always helped out taking care of nieces, nephews, grandniece and friends' kids, however, and have been gratified by that.

Occasionally I regret not having kids, but those occasions are very rare. Being a mom was never a burning need for me.

And I'd better get to bed. I'm babysitting a 14-month-old in the morning! Yay!

[Hardrada]

27. Does someone have a chart of how much it costs to raise a child in different countries?

Also energy use. I think in 1999 or so an American child would use 122 times the resources a Brazilian child would in the first ten years of life.

[Berry Cool]

28. Some women don't want to do it until they find the right man to do it with

and they never do. Others realize that if they do have kids, even with a man, chances are that they will be doing the bulk of the heavy lifting while Daddy has to be pushed pretty hard to do anything with the kids other than the "fun stuff." Knowing that, they choose not to have kids, knowing they will have to make more sacrifices to be a mother than men usually have to to become fathers.

[Karenina]

33. And some, informing themselves from others' experiences

REALIZE that if you procreate with Mr WRONG, you're stuck with him for LIFE, whether he's around or not, alive or dead.

[Alcibiades]

31. People are making their own choices

The fact that someone makes a different choice from you in no way invalidates you own choice. You can have kids, or not have kids. Be like your ancestors, or be different.

We had two kids. We replaced ourselves. It's not irresponsible to have kids, and it's not irresponsible to not have kids. Am I a fan of the Duggars? No, but I would defend their right to do what they are doing. Reproductive choices are up to the people involved, not other people.

[smirkymonkey]

32. Some of us just have no maternal instinct whatsoever and feel

no social pressure to reproduce. I love my nieces and nephews, but I can only handle so much time with them. I find childcare draining. Maybe I am selfish, but at least I know myself well enough to know that I would not have made a very good parent and why bring a child into the world if I am not prepared to meet all their needs.

Also, I have never met a man that I have wanted to have children with and soon it will be too late anyway. Besides, I don't have a lot of faith in the future of this country or even this planet.

[Book Lover]

36. And as usual, no one's wringing their hands over men not having children

Because really, who wants to control men's bodies and lives anyway?

[MountainLaurel]

37. A-fucking-men n/t

[bemildred]

39. Supply and demand, there is a people glut right now. nt