We're Child-Free, Not Childless
More American women are choosing not to have children, according to a new report from the Census Bureau.
But the Census Bureau and the mainstream media continue to refer to women without children as "childless" instead of "child-free." Child-free implies women made an affirmative decision not to have children. Childless implies women are infertile and could not have children. As one who made that affirmative decision (I had no children on purpose), I am hereby launching my own personal media campaign to make "child-free" the term of choice, not "childless."
I'm glad many women want to have children. It's a biological imperative, or the species might perish. But the more educated we get, and the more choices we have, more of us are likely to decide that we want to devote ourselves to other tasks (like writing a blog) than raising a child. I understand it's the minority choice. I just want it to be as respected as the majority choice.
Now back to the facts: The report shows an overall decline in U.S. fertility. But don't worry about depletion of the species, because while U.S. fertility is dropping, the U.S. population is ballooning upward, mainly because of increased immigration and the large families immigrant women tend to have.
Census data reveal 20 percent of American women between the ages of 40 and 44 have no children, twice the number of 30 years ago. Women in that age range who do have children have just fewer than two (1.9) on average, down from just more than three (3.1) in 1976.
Women's decisions to pursue higher education and lofty careers before having children may also be driving other changes in fertility. While women with advanced or professional degrees are more likely to be child-free, they also have the current highest birthrate (67 births for every 1,000 women) of all educational levels. But current fertility refers to the rate at which women had children in the year before the survey was taken. Women with advanced degrees also have the lowest lifetime fertility rate. One Census Bureau official told me that means highly educated women that year were more likely to get out of school and have a baby right away. They still have the lowest lifetime fertility rate of any group of women.
Tags: Census Bureau | children
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Reader Comments
Childfree vs. Childless
I am most certainly in support of the term "childfree" as opposed to "childless" in describing people who choose not to have children. The term "childless" is appropriate for people who want children, but do not (or cannot) have them for whatever reason. It is a term that implies lack or that one is missing something. This most definitely does not apply to people who choose not to have kids.
As a childfree person myself, I most certainly see my state as being free of children and all the hardship, sacrifice and burden having them entails. I also see my life as one that is more rich and more fulfilling because of the freedom I have - said freedom a direct result of having a life free of children.
For more on this topic, please visit my blog, Childfreedom.
http://childfreedom.blogspot.com/
Conscious Thought and Creativity vs Mindless Replication
Perhaps, the mindless among us can't imagine a life as something other than a vehicle for DNA through space/time. Perhaps, those who criticise us who don't mindlessly replicate, have no imagination and are incapable of any other form of "creativity" except to have sex without birth control, and essentially substitute the recombining of thier DNA as a vehicle for "creativity" which is procreation, and isn't a substitute for bringing into existance that which couldn't possibley come about through pre-programmed mindless molecular rearangement that was initiated 3 billion years before the first sentient life arose on this planet.
History seems full of individuals who actually chose either to not have a family, or, left them so they could develope in ways that tradition at the time would otherwise not allow them to.
Many more of us have chosen to become something other than DNA replicators, and as a matter of fact, believe that if enough of us stop reproducing, it will cause a "people shortage" and actually speed up the bio/nano tech revolution in which many of us hope to see before we are old and die, i.e., modification of the human form to a better one than nature evolved..
..think about that..
Are You Kidfree & Lovin' It?
Great article Bonnie, and I totally agree with you!...Mostly. I don't think a govt. entity like the U.S. Census Bureau should be changing "childless" to "childfree" and it doesn't offend me that they use this academic/clinical term to describe us. Certainly some of us wanted kids and some of us didn't, but "childfree" seems to offend many of those who wanted them but couldn't have them.
There's a whole group of people that fall somewhere in the middle, between "infertile and/or unhappy that they couldn't procreate" and those who "never wanted to be a parent." I've coined this group the "kidfree."
You are kidfree if - either by choice OR by chance - you did not have kids in this lifetime. If you are upset and pining about not having kids, you are still childless. If, in hindsight, you are happy about the lifestyle and opportunities being a non-parent has brought you, you are KIDFREE.
I am writing a book called "Kidfree & Lovin' It" that looks at the reasons we are relieved we don't have kids, as well as the issues we must face for being unchilded in a child-centric world. I have an online survey that over 2,700 adults without children around the world have taken. I invite you to take it too!
Just click on this link to take you there, and you can remain anonymous if you like:
http://tinyurl.com/Kidfree-Survey
Thanks, and enjoy!
Kidfree Kaye
www.kidfreeandlovinit.com
P.S. I don't expect the government to start calling us Kidfree, but it's certainly something we can call ourselves.
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