Census: Record Number of Women Childless

Yahoo! News ^ | 10/24/2003 | GENARO C. ARMAS

[DumpsterDiver]

but sometimes it's better if dad isn't around

I'll drink to that. And some mommies aren't that great either. Oh well, we do the best we can with the cards we're dealt.

About that woman in your office... she seems a little flaky.

[Weimdog]

I hope these childless women don't expect my children to be footing the bill for their Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drugs!

[Pedantic_Lady]

Hehehe...you're not the first one to think so. Yeah, I think Anne (the crazy lady) is extremely eccentric, but she's good at what she does so I generally ignore her politics and opinions. I try not to discuss politics at the office...since I'm American and living in the UK I get asked a LOT of questions and sometimes the people asking the questions don't like the answers.

Oh well! I tell them that if my answers scare them, then they should stop asking scary questions. I think Jules (Samuel L. Jackson's character) in Pulp Fiction said something to that effect. :-)

[Pedantic_Lady]

I hope these childless women don't expect my children to be footing the bill for their Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drugs!

I'm sure they do, but they pay taxes to foot the bill for other peoples' childrens' educations, so it's a fair trade.

[Age of Reason]

Darwin at work.

In a few generations, women prone to women's liberation baloney will become extinct.

And we'll be better off for it.

[Prime Choice]

To each their own. The worst thing that a child can endure is not being wanted. Material things are immaterial.

I was an "oops" baby, but I always knew growing up that I was wanted. Made all the difference in the world.

[ReveBM]

I am a white guy happily married to a wife from Taiwan who actually likes having children (in contrast to the Asian women cited in this article). We are expecting our third child in January, and have no definitive plans to stop there.

I met with my life insurance agent today, who is much richer than I am. She said "don't you practice BIRTH CONTROL"? I said that we used to but that we discovered that my wife has a hard time to conceive naturally (we don't do anything completely unnatural, just some Chinese herbal medicine hat my wife swears by - it worked for our second child, and it appears to have worked fine with this one). My wife also likes to be off the pill anyway.

In any case, my agent remarked that my $70,000 salary to support the family was "nothing" and that you "can't have a life in the New York area with less than $200,000 a year.' Now, I entered my agent's office that day feeling good about expecting our third child (a girl), and how I had been managing the family finances. I left feeling decidedly taken down a a few pegs.

Let me get to a point - if I have one. As I said my wife is Asian. I have other Asian coworkers aat the office including one woman in particular who bitches all the time about her four-year-old daughter "If I had it to do all over again I wouldn't have had her". She is incredulous that I'm having another kid, like I am some kind of a circus freak.

Truly if I didn't have this other Asian (Chinese) woman in my office and for comments by people like my life insurance agent (maybe she was pissed I was not buying additional policies), I would feel pretty pleased with my lot in life right now. My two existing kids, ages 5 and 3, are very excited for the arrival of the new baby. It's true that I no longer have money to eat out very often or have expensive hobbies like I used to. I recently cancelled my cell phone to free up some more monthly cash. I feel like I have a very loving environment with my wife and kids that I enjoy.

If those childless people are happy, and I'm happy, the world's a fine place. The problem I have is people crossing over the barrier from the childless (or the "want to be childless?") side to make snide comments about my growing family. I suppose it happens in the other direction too. Although I don't really have an answer for hard-core environmentalists who believe every new human baby is destructive, otherwise I will try to raise my kids to be solid contributors to society.

[Fizzie]

The number of women 15 to 44 forgoing or putting off motherhood has grown nearly 10 percent since 1990, when roughly 24.3 million were in that class.

I happen to think 15 year old "women" putting off motherhood is a no-brainer.

Non-high school graduates and those with bachelor's degrees were most likely to be childless.

Doesn't that just about cover everyone?

[yonif]

Doesn't that just about cover everyone?

Well you could be a highschool graduate and not have a BA.

[Orangedog]

I met with my life insurance agent today...

Lesson #1: Never be worth more to anyone dead than you are alive. :)

[Yossarian]

I'm a single guy in the Bay Area, full of female-empowerment and party girls. It's pretty amazing to see how many of them become miserable because a) they realized they "had fun" and "put their career first" until they were past fertility age; and b) they realize that real men want to be fathers, and thus that excludes real men dating them.

They end up all partied out and all worked out with nowhere to go. Sad.

Then they become bitter feminazi hags with lots of disposable income. Evil.

[yarddog]

There is something terribly wrong with the world today. People are miserable and don't even know why. I am sure there are some who are childless and happy, some who are unmarried and happy but I was just talking to a little girl, (I guess she isn't so little anymore) who made some choices in her life which she now regrets.

My wife and I got to know this little girl about 11 years ago. She was, and is a real beauty. She attracted boys like nothing I have ever seen. She was queen of everything at a large high school. Was popular in College.

So many boys wanted to marry her but she was not even slightly interested. She wanted to do her own thing.

Now she is working as a receptionist, at medium to low pay, has a two room apartment, a cat, and is so miserable she told us she just about can't stand it anymore.

She still has her share of boyfriends but the really good ones are taken. She wants very badly to get married now but the ones she meets are not the ones who want to marry a 29 year old.

The really sad thing is she doesn't blame herself for her decisions. She just thinks there are no good boys left.

[Fizzie]

True. Didn't think it out well enough!

[yarddog]

I was writing my post while yours was already posted. I think we were basically saying the same thing.

[Yossarian]

Does said 29 year old super-beauty live within 100 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area? :^)

[joedish]

Do you think these childless couples drive a short sighted view in society? Since they have no interest in leaving the world a better place for their children? I wonder if those that have decided to go childless gernally fall to one side of the polical spectrum. I forsee terrible things for our children from the unrestrained growth of government at all levels. If you have no reason to look to the future do you just not care about any of these things?

[mdittmar]

I was a kid once,didn't have a good time.

I suspect childhood experiences influence the decision.

My cats Little One and Scratch,are two happy cats.

[yarddog]

Not even within 1000 miles.

BTW there was one boy who wanted to marry her and she turned him down not too long ago.

She finally swallowed her pride and phoned him. She then learned he is now engaged.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Dude! Hurry to post #32 before it's too late!

[halfdome]

I've never heard about the hard core environmentalists who think every baby is destructive. Who are they?

But anyway, if you and your wife and kids are happy, who cares what your insurance agent or anyone else thinks? And I sure wouldn't assume that she's happier than you, either.