A new study breaks down the reasons more U.S. adults say they are unlikely to have children.

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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.

  • Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
    1213·
    5 months ago

    I’m not unaccomplished, by any means, but I genuinely felt like I wasted my life before having a kid. We had our first at 36 and we’re about to start trying for a 2nd at 38.

    Which is to say, while it’s hard, it’s one of the only things worth doing in life. IMO, obviously.

    (For the record, in our 20s we were the “no thanks” crowd, I changed in my 30s and my wife took an extra 6 years to come around)

    Edit: lol love the downvotes for this benign comment. Lemmy is a dumpsterfire.

    • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
      111·
      5 months ago

      I decided at 30 to have kids. I wouldn’t say I wasted my life before kids, I just wasn’t ready yet. I still feel under prepared. I say that children is the hardest thing you will ever do, and I think that’s the source of downvotes I’m getting. I’m not saying that there are not other things in life that are hard. If you choose not to have kids, you can still have hard things in your life.

      However, if you do choose to have kids, that will be the hardest thing you do. Emotionally and physically hard. You lose any sort of regenerative sleep for 5 years. Fitness routine? Bye bye. Energy? Out the window. Oh, you enjoyed the relationship with your spouse? HAH! And then you take the emotional stuff into it, like mourning the loss of the human baby you grew to love and falling in love with the toddler the baby became. And then the cycle repeats again and again until one day they don’t come back. It’s a 20 year relationship that ends with a partial breakup.

      • toomanypancakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        5 months ago

        You lose any sort of regenerative sleep for 5 years. Fitness routine? Bye bye. Energy? Out the window.

        Oh shit, do I have kids?

      • pahlimur@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 months ago

        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.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
      111·
      5 months ago

      I’m gay and married. No kids, don’t want them. I have nieces and nephews I can borrow for the day and then give them back.