Many women don't want kids. And for good reason.
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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you know, it is like the millennial generation, I feel that has said openly, I don't want to have children, but also finding that conversation difficult to have with their parents who expected to be a grandparent, you know, like the disappointment of being a woman who doesn't want children. People love to say you'll change your mind. They love to scaremonger you and say you're gonna sort of die a lonely death. And I, as I get older, I'm so happy with my decision more and more.
The American birth rate is declining, and there have been countless theories as to why that is. But we've mostly explored the falling birth rate from the perspective of people who might otherwise want kids. But what about people who don't want kids at all? To get into all of this, I've got Sarah McCammon, senior fellow at Third Way, and Emma Gannon, author of the novel Olive, which explores the decision of being child-free by choice. Emma, Sarah, welcome to It's Been a Minute. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having me. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
Okay, so I want to start off by defining some terms. Like when people talk about, you know, those of us who are adults without kids, there are a couple different terms used, childless and child-free. Sometimes in other media, I'll see those terms used interchangeably, although they're definitely not the same thing. Childless implies that being a non-parent may be a matter of circumstance. Like maybe you wanted kids, but it didn't work out. But the term child-free is much more rooted in the choice to be a non-parent. That's the group of people we'll be discussing today.
What are the reasons millennials and Gen Z are choosing to be child-free?
So for the purposes of this conversation, I will be going forward using the term child-free. So I just want to ground that for everybody watching and listening. That's where we're coming from. Survey and polling data indicates that millennials and Gen Zers are increasingly interested in living child-free. And they've shared a variety of reasons for that. They are concerned about the cost, the time, the effort required to be a good parent. Honestly, it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to be like an okay parent. So being a good parent is like even more intense. And a lot of them just didn't have that desire, didn't have the desire to do that. Regardless of why, They don't want to be parents. Their disinterest in parenting has a lot of people in a panic.
Why do you think this trend is causing such a stir? Sarah, we'll start with you. Well, a lot of it comes down to economics.
There has been a really rapid shift in the way that people live and form families or don't form families as you just mentioned. alluded to, you know, the fertility rate in the U.S. has fallen to 1.6 children per women. That is about half a point less than replacement. And replacement is basically just the number that's needed to sort of maintain a steady level, stable population.
So we're like heading to a population decline.
Yeah.
Correct.
Yeah. Yeah. If you if you subtract immigration, which is like a whole other conversation. But, you know, this is happening already in some societies, especially in parts of Asia.
How does the declining birth rate impact societal expectations?
Those are some of the most prominent examples. And what that means is as a whole, the population is getting older. There are fewer younger workers. This creates all kinds of questions about, you know, pension systems, elder care. the future of the economy, especially in an economy that's really kind of been built on growth. And so that's the big worry that I hear from sort of mainstream demographers. If you talk to people who consider themselves sort of pronatalists who
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:16
2
What are the reasons millennials and Gen Z are choosing to be child-free?
2:16–3:52
3
How does the declining birth rate impact societal expectations?
3:52–8:44
4
What terms are used to describe adults without children, and what do they mean?
8:44–12:42
5
What economic factors contribute to the decision not to have children?
12:42–36:48