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 ...
“Choosing to become extinct is smart. That’s interesting.
“
Um, we all die, or didn’t you understand that part about life?
Well yes, I do understand that we all die.
What I don't understand is willfully eliminated your progeny by ceasing all reproduction (thereby extinguishing your DNA forever) then publicly declaring yourself "smarter" for doing so.
Forgive me, it's nothing personal, but I'm finding that position extremely hard to resolve.
Whittaker Chambers talks about this in Witness. It was a struggle for him, and it was worse for his brother. (Read the book to find out how much worse.)
An eternally old problem.
My bad. ;-]
In view of your handle and your sentiments, it's surprising to me that we both consider ourselves "conservative."
John Maynard Keynes agrees with you:
"The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy."
He was writing about the rise of Communism. Do you think he is a conservative?
Freegards.
But who is going to have the cash? I bet most of us won’t.
RE: “You might want to reconsider that generalization, in light of the sheer volume of FReeper females who don’t have children.”
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Yes! All childless females are not feminist libs, for heaven’s sake. I knew by late teens (and after years of babysitting neighborhood kids) that I was not cut out to have kids. I would not have been a great parent. I’ve known many women who said, after several kids, “Why didn’t someone warn me against having these kids?” Well, they would not have listened to such a warning, for one thing.
I think it’s good to know ourselves well enough to know what is right for us and what is not. We should be commended, not criticized.
I have a lot of respect for people who realize they should not have children.....I have family members who should not have....I lost some respect for Dr. Laura when she told a youngish married woman who happened to love teaching primary grade school that she MUST have children of her own....when she really didn’t want to. Heavens...she had a classroom full of children for 8 months of the year....and impacted far more children, I would think. I had a 16 yr old step-granddaughter once ask me “why I didn’t have more children”....my only son is her step-Dad....I told her...I thought one was all I could handle. I hope she learned something...her Mom (my DIL) has been married 3 times with 4 kids by 3 different guys.....
RE: “.................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..................”
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LOL, you really ARE living in your own little dream world. Better get that ‘caring for you’ bit all spelled out in writing and make sure no one gets a dime of your ‘wealth’ unless they sign on to keep you ‘secure’ in your old age. Otherwise, you may be in for a huge shock when you are pawned off on just one of your (probably resentful)offspring or are simply warehoused in the nursing home by virtue of a vote by all of your kids. I have seen this so many times, over and over and over again ——
You must still be rather young................
Re: “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.”
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I know a greedy stepdaughter who is doing precisely that with my aunt at this exact time.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Heck, if anyone wants to have lots of children — God bless you. The Bible even says, be fruitful and multiply. Great. But I don’t think that God would have wanted us to have children if they would not have been wanted, needed, loved and cared for in the way they should be. Our local media is full of stories of parents bashing their children’s heads in, leaving them home alone and a fire breaks out, incest, rape, starvation, the whole 9 yards. I don’t think God intended for that to happen. Which is the greater sin? Having children and then abusing them, or not having them when you know they may not grow into healthy, happy adults?
“Forgive me, it’s nothing personal, but I’m finding that position extremely hard to resolve.
“
Where is it written that humans must continue to exist? Are you personally really so great that the planet needs more of you?
” Which is the greater sin? Having children and then abusing them, or not having them when you know they may not grow into healthy, happy adults?”
My feelings exactly.
Part of it is biology. Our gametes are more fragile than in decades past, probably due to environmental contamination.
We all know that in a newly polluted stream, it is the soft bodied fish and frogs that first show deformities, and these are usually in the most sensitive areas — the reproductive systems. This is true for humans as well. Fertility is FALLING.
Now, for the males of the species, their gametes are produced fresh constantly, so they are not quite as affected. But for each woman, her full amount of eggs was completed before she was born. Her uterine environment may have been compromised by the air and water taken in by her mother, as well as the frankenfoods her mother consumed.
In past generations women over 40 could still have children. Not so much any more.
Your childhood may have been great, but you're still alive now, when things seem so bleak. Using you own standards, shouldn't your parents have chosen to not have you, since the world is so bad today?
40 years ago...1970. One of the most corrupt presidents in U.S. history had recently fled office only to be replaced by a "republican" who promptly established wage and price controls, launched the EPA and was sucking up to communist china. In the meantime, the politicians were screwing up the Vietnam war and betraying the South Vietnamese. I could also mention the hippies, yippies, black panthers and Charles Manson. Yeah, I would have been on FR had it existed in 1970.
>>FREERIDER ping!
Freerider on what?
So, having children lets you make psychiatric diagnoses of people whom you have never met?
Social stratification by IQ is an inevitable product of a technological society that values cognitive abilities. IMO, the government should not engage in any form of social engineering.
“Using you own standards, shouldn’t your parents have chosen to not have you, since the world is so bad today?”
You misquote my standards. How would my parents have known around 50 years ago that today would be so bad? They thought for sure things would have been corrected instead of continuing to go down hill. I once asked my dad if he thought in 1976 during the bicentennial if things would be as they are today and he said he would have been shocked and backed a civil war if eh had known. Frogs in the pot, we’re just frogs in the pot.
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