Posted on 06/25/2010 3:16:32 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Nearly one in five American women in her early 40s is childless, according to a report that shows a striking increase in women who don't have biological children.
The trend was much less common in the 1970s, when one in 10 women did not have children by 40 to 44, the age bracket researchers use to designate the end of childbearing years.
The report, released Friday by the Pew Research Center, cites social and cultural shifts behind the change, including less pressure to have children, better contraceptive measures and expanded job opportunities for women.
(snip)
Overall, the report found that white women are more likely to be childless, as are women with more education. The analysis, based largely on census data, comes amid changing attitudes about women who do not have children.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Cat farmer?
Have you ever TRIED to plant cats? They don’t care much for being watered nor do they like being fertilized. (Well it sounds like they don’t like it)
“Women who missed the natural childbearing time to have children, as a conscious choice, may not realize the emptiness in the midst of that time... it will hit in 20-30 years... at the end of it all.”
Yup. Worse, they will be in a situation where there is no one to watch out for them or intercede on their behalf at the end of their time. Part of the traditional reason for having children is pragmatic; security in old age. Security can take many dimensions. Economic security being just one.
We’re entering into very challenging if not dark times. The traditional family did not evolve because someone just thought it up some fine morning.
Good point. Mark Steyn covered some of this in one of his books.
Some, like a relative, come down with physical conditions that result in it being impossible.
Ditto. But it took 2 marriages.
I’m a red neck, not a hick. What we have here is a failure to communicate.
“Worse, they will be in a situation where there is no one to watch out for them or intercede on their behalf at the end of their time. “
***
Um...thanks to Obamacare, having children around to intercede won’t help. These decisions will not be made by patients or their families; they will be made by bureaucrats.
:-D. Ah. Ingenious I tell you. Ingenious! I have done just as you have proposed. We FREEP living catfully ever after or until early morning yeollings do us part (and of course then we come back together after the little furry brats have been fed and watered by my dedicated--and easily cat manipulated--at 5:30 AM!)
:-D. Ah. Ingenious I tell you. Ingenious! I have done just as you have proposed. We FREEP living catfully ever after or until early morning yeollings do us part (and of course then we come back together after the little furry brats have been fed and watered by my dedicated--and easily cat manipulated--HUSBAND at 5:30 AM!)
bflr
I married in my late 20s, hubby then had a drug problem for 10 years. By the time I got him sorted out I was starting a suprisingly early menopause. No kids for me either.
It would’ve been a huge mistake and bad for the kids to bring them into a marriage where the father was stoned out of his gourd most of the time.
But apparently I’m selfish because I didn’t reproduce....
“Um...thanks to Obamacare, having children around to intercede won’t help. These decisions will not be made by patients or their families; they will be made by bureaucrats.”
True in part but not entirely. Socialized medicine systems have alternatives available for those who are willing and able to pay for them.
Cash still talks.
There is a supposed correlation between Schizophrenia and older sperm.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/older.htm
And they can't even farm cats there either.
“What happened is that these poor women were taught by leftist feminist ninnies that having a traditional marriage and family was undesirable”
Not really. Many don’t have children because the world absolutely sucks. Many of those childless women are married. They are usually the more educated and professional women. Of all the women over 40 that I know who do not have children, all are married and have been for years, including my wife.
In fact, many of the women who do have children at that age are single and are usually the lesser educated and non-professionals.
I hate to say it but the movie ‘Idiocracy’ is right: It is the idiots among us that are breeding like rabbits and the smarter couples are not.
It is true that some residents have children who don't visit. Maybe they live far away. And of course, you don't know what that person was like as a parent either. May have been a high-maintenance abusive PIA to the kids growing up.
As for waiting on the inheritance, after a few years in a nursing home at 70 to 80K per year there isn't likely to be much inheritance to speak of. What the greedy children actually do is get named guardian for their parents so they can legally abscond with the assets even before they die.
I've heard this argument before and I'm curious: can you name a time in history in which you would have wanted to have had children in?
I gotta tell you, there was never a happy golden age.
Couples who voluntarily extinguish their bloodlines are "smarter?"
Choosing to become extinct is smart. That's interesting.
Sure, my own childhood. Even my parents say while things were always tough during those years, things have gotten far worse now. The mere fact that you are on FR today says alot about that. 40 years ago you wouldn’t have thought to be on a thing such as FR and be saying and discussing the things you do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.