this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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I’ll start. I’m a 37-year-old woman, and I’ve always been indifferent about having children. I love peace and quiet, but at the same time, I wouldn’t mind having kids if my partner really wanted them.

I’ve been with my husband for 13 years now and married for 11. I’m his second (and final) wife. He has three kids with his first wife. She was supportive of him taking a second wife, with just one request: no more children. That solidified my decision not to have kids.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I was always ambivalent about kids leaning more to not. Met my wife and thought yeah, if I'd raise a kid with anyone it'd be her. Getting my first father's day this weekend. No regrets, very happy, kids awesome even though she can't speak yet she still communicates a lot. Yeah the screamy cries suck but the smiles, the giggles, the confusion and curiosity about anything new, goddamn.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Not for me (34m). I like having my niblings around and play with them, but I like it even more to give them back into their parents care after half an hour. I simply could not stand to be responsible for another human being and devoting almost every minute of my life to them for several years, and taking the appropriate measures to ensure I will not father a child was the best decision in my life.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Absolutely nothing about children has ever been appealing to me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Absolutely. I still don't have a pet because I don't necessarily want the responsibility, but i generally love them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Never wanted kids. I'm barely able to look after myself without help, there's no way I'll be responsible enough to look after a kid. That and I'm too pessimistic about the state of the world right now and don't want to bring somebody into a world that will be uninhabitable by the time they turn 30.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I don't. Some of the reasons: I have way too many hobbies so my free time is precious, too many people on this planet already, raising a child costs 250K, we live too far away from our parents for any free babysitting, the current society is not one I want my child to grow up in, ...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have one child, and I love her so much. I’m very happy we decided to have a child.

However, I’m content with just one child. Even in an ideal situation, raising a healthy child is hard work. It’s extremely rewarding, but the responsibility of shaping another human’s formative experiences shouldn’t be taken lightly.

As the comments on this post (and birth rate statistics) repeatedly hammer home, the state of the world is extremely hostile to having children right now, especially financially.

What the doomers fail to address, is that raising a child provides a unique opportunity to inject the very values we need to fix the world’s issues into the next generation. If you really want kids, it will be one of the hardest, yet rewarding lifestyle changes of your life. If someone is on the fence, it might be better to abstain, but only they can make that decision.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

No. I have an autosomal dominant genetic condition that has led to chronic health problems

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I would hope I want them considering I have three. Kids are a ton of work. As a dad, I found the newborn stage to be miserable. No one warned me about that. The teenage years can be pretty rough too. But there are lots of incredible experiences in between. I wouldn't trade any of mine but I don't blame anyone for not wanting to have kids. It's a lifelong commitment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I would probably only have one or two kids. I think it is beautiful to bring someone into the world and teach them the good and the bad of it. But I won't have more kids than two because it would be unfair to bring more children into a world that is quite literally burning. If I get kids, I teach them to appreciate existence but to leave the planet should the travel to and habitation of Mars become viable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For sure. I'm getting married in about 6 months, and we've already agreed we want to have kids, but that we don't want them right away.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think it would be rad to have a little version of me to teach stuff to and hang out with until they are teenager and hate me, then like me once again after they get even older.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

No. I just don’t. I don’t know why…I just have never wanted kids since as long as I can remember.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I have kids, they are turning out to be awesome people. If I didn't have kids I think I'd still want them or at least adopt them. If only the careless/selfish people are raising kids the world isn't going to get better, I think people with means should do what they can to shape the next generation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

No. But funny how people interpret posts in their own cultural context. When reading the post just literally, it's clearly about polygamy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I don't think I have enough free time to devote to having kids. So nah, I'm good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No. Having a child at this point is dooming them to death by climate. I fear the age of dying by old age has passed. Having kids has always been a selfish act. Even more so now.

Look around. Having a child in THIS world is chosen ignorance, burying your head in the sand.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I'm 29 and I think babies are kinda fascinating because they're so primal but interacting with kids roughly between 2 and 14 feels very exhausting to me. After that they start acting like they know everything (while usually knowing very little) but they tend to develop a particular sense of humor that I can work with. But yeah it's mostly a chore for me and I see no reason to incorporate more of that into my life. I don't feel a biological urge to reproduce.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

No. I was born sterile, and I’d never be able to afford them anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

No, I don’t want the commitment. I’m used to living my life in a way that lets me do what I want, when I want. I definitely feel a kind of melancholy when I see dads with their young kids, but I just don’t think it’s for me - and luckily, my partner feels the same about herself.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

As a 24 year old man, I really want to have children, and I want to have a lot of them.

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