Reasons Some Women Choose to be Child-Free: Part 3

By Rheyanne Weaver HERWriter

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Though there are many reasons women may decide not to have children, here are more of the commonly heard reasons:

Some women may not like children, thus making it obvious that they wouldn't want to have their own. This doesn't necessarily mean that women who don't like children are horrible. Perhaps they don't like all the responsibilities that go along with children.

Maybe they don't like the fact that children need to be watched wherever they go, that some can be demanding and rude. Children are just like regular people, except sometimes with worse qualities. Maybe women who decide they don't like children haven't seen enough good children. This could also just be a reflection of the parenting style most people seem to have.

One online magazine "for a new generation of young parents," Babble Australia, featured an article from a "non-breeder." In one section of the article, the writer describes her view on children: "Babies are sleep-thieving aliens. Toddlers are noise-and-break-stuff machines. Children are precocious annoyances, and you can’t tell them bawdy jokes. And teenagers … I didn’t even like them when I was one." Of course, all the above is just an opinion, and most women differ in their own opinions of children and why they want or don't want children.

Women might be afraid of labor and how a child will affect their appearance. The second reason from "No Kids: 40 Good Reasons Not To Have Children," is "labor is torture." Even women who have children cannot argue with this, though they will most likely add that the pain is worth the child. Also, most women never fully recover physically from having a child. If they do recover, it may take a while.

For example, according to www.babycenter.com, it takes four to six weeks for the uterus to return to normal size. Although a lot of weight will drop once a woman has a baby, it will take a week or so to lose more water weight, according to the Web site. However, according to an article on Suite 101, some women don't lose that much weight after giving birth. This means there is extra work that some women might not have time for. The author suggests that it will take about nine months to get back to normal since it took that long to gain weight for the baby.

Although there are other reasons, they can be tied into the benefits and costs of not having a child.

One benefit of not having a child is that women might be paid more. This depends on the job and position (and location), but according to www.guardian.co.uk, "Women without children earn on average 95 percent of what men do, whereas women with children earn 75 percent." This could be because women who have children might have less time to work or they had to take a maternity leave.

Some employers also might discriminate and just assume that women who don't have children have fewer obligations and would do better at a job, especially if it is on-call or demanding (at least hour-wise). Maybe women who have children pursue lower-paying and less-demanding jobs because they want to have more time for their children. Anyway, the statistics speak for themselves.

Read more in the next article in the series.

Sources:
http://www.babble.com.au/2009/01/11/i-dont-like-children-even-yours/
http://www.amazon.com/No-Kids-Good-Reasons-Children/dp/0771054777#reader_0771054777
http://pregnancychildbirth.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_lose_weight_after_pregnancy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/08/motherhood-children-babies2

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.