Trevor Collins
Lori Bedell
Rhetoric and Civic Life
7 November 2014
Choosing Childfree
There is no love like the love a parent has for their child; there is nothing more rewarding than seeing this child grow and become their own person; the choice to have a baby is the best choice you will ever make. These ideas are some that have been ingrained into our culture and are generally not challenged. It’s a widely accepted idea that all children are the epitome of a happy, successful life. Many people would say that grandchildren are the greatest gift you could give your parents. The response to the announcement of “We are having a baby” is always an applause, cheers of happiness and “Yay”s providing the news isn’t delivered by teenagers. All of these notions are some that really were not having their opposing sides represented; at least not until now. In the last 20 years, more and more couples have started to think about the true implications of having a child and less about these culturally ingrained ideas. According to Time: Money, over these past 20 years, the amount of couples planning on having kids has decreased from what was previously 78% of partners to about 42% (Davidson). However, this isn’t to say that more people are simply planning on not having kids; they’re following through with these plans, and apparently have been for a long time. Over the past 40 years, both the population growth rate and fertility rates for the entire world have halved (Suzuki). Last year in the U.S., fertility rates hit an all-time-low for women under 30 having their first child (Nasser). This trend of less and less people having children is becoming increasingly prevalent, and the world is likely going to feel many repercussions of this in the near future. But what are these repercussions? And why is this shift happening in the first place, specifically in the U.S.? For reasons relating to economic, cultural and social changes, a shift is occurring in which less and less people are deciding to take on the responsibility of having a child.
The first and likely the largest proponent of this trend is relating to the economy. According to Time: Money, the decrease in the number of couples planning on having children decreasing to 42% from 78% isn’t necessarily because less people want kids, but rather because they feel like their “economic stars [won’t] align to make it happen” (Davidson). According to estimates made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost of raising a child for a middle-income family is currently at about $245,000, which is a sum of money that many people aren’t feeling capable of spending now, or even in the future (Hicken). This figure also excludes the cost of college, which is currently at, on average, about $23,000 for state schools and $45,000 for private schools (“What’s the Price Tag”). This price tag is currently very dissuading to chose considering becoming parents, especially considering many people consider the cost of education to be rather outrageous in the first place. Now, to millennials looking towards the future, the cost of raising a child, including tuition, is even less appealing because of how quickly college costs are raising. Over the past 10 years, the price of college has nearly doubled, meaning that those who are looking at having children now will be facing college costs that are three to four times what they are now if we extrapolate this data (Kurtzlaben). More potential parents are realizing this harsh reality than ever before, and are deciding they simply can’t afford the nearly $300,00 investment. However, this is obviously not the only aspect of the economy that is causing people to not have kids. According to an article published by Princeton University, there is a direct relationship between recessionary conditions and fertility rates in women. It is common knowledge that the U.S. economy hasn’t been doing very well since the last recession. According to the article, a one-percent increase in unemployment in the age group of 20-24 results in the loss of six conceptions per one thousand women. This conception loss increases through age ranges, with 40 year old women losing about 14.2 conceptions per one percent unemployment (Huber). Recession and poor economic conditions create an environment in which having a child becomes less of a default action of married couples and more of a financial decision. This is why the current U.S economy is simply not conducive to having children, and a large portion of the reasoning behind why the country, and the world as a whole, are seeing these falling fertility numbers. However, they are not the only reason.
A very important and often not-so obvious factor playing a large role in this shift is the changing role of women within society. It’s no secret that over the past several decades, gender roles have started to be put into question more than ever before. In the current day and age, where women are nearing equal treatment to men, or have already achieved it depending on who you ask, the traditional role of the stay-at-home mother is becoming less prevalent as more women find themselves in the workforce or the world of business Over the past 40 years or so, the number of women in the U.S. civilian workforce increased by about 40 million (“Facts Over Time”). However, the trend of less women having kids isn’t purely linked to their newfound career roles. As a matter of fact, what research has found is that the women that are starting to choose to not have children are actually those with the highest Intelligent Quotients, or IQs (Walshe). According to a study that was conducted on this phenomenon, it was found that the desire to reproduce actually diminishes by 25% for each additional 15 IQ points a women has (Styles). The reasons that smarter women don’t seem to want children, though, are varied. Many of them, being considered more “intelligent” tend to have more rigorous work schedules, and so they just don’t see the time. In parallel with this, census data has shown that there is a link between not having children and having a higher education. Other women simply say that they just don’t have the desire to have children (Walshe). One particular quote, however, form social scientist, Dr. Nattavudh Powdthavee, seems to capture the essence of these women’s’ decision. “Parents spend much of their time attending to the very core processes of childcare: problems at school, cooking, laundry”; “It’s these small but negative experiences that are more likely to impact on our day-to-day levels of happiness and life satisfaction (Styles). While women’s changing roles are important to this shift, this idea of happiness and life satisfaction that Powdthavee talks about also seems to be playing a key role in diminishing fertility.
It is undeniable that the world around us has become very media-centered. It’s incredibly hard to go a single day without reading several headlines about Ebola or cat-calling; because of this, new discoveries made by various studies that have a broad appeal are reaching people more than ever before. With that said, over the past few years, people have become aware of several studies that were done to find a correlation between children and happiness. For example, an article by Time Magazine, titled “Do Children Bring Happiness- Or Misery”, while not really reaching a conclusion one way or the other, did provide some extrinsic proofs such as that U.S. adults ages 17-25 with children reported, on average, being less happy than their childless counterparts (Lyubomirsky). While this group is on the younger side of parenthood, these sorts of statistics could definitely be playing a role in getting young couples off of the fence in favor of not having a child. Another study provided by CNN, conducted on several sets of parents, showed that out of sixteen different activities, taking care of their child “ranked only above housework and commuting in its enjoyableness” (Etzioni). Not only this, but many couples that the quality of the relationship with their actual partner, their marriage as a whole, gets much worse after having a child (Etzioni). Many young couples that don’t want to risk their relationship may see this as a potential reason to avoid children, at least temporarily. This reduced happiness as a result of children also isn’t simply a correlation; it isn’t that the type of couples who choose to not have children also tend to lead happier lifestyles. One study went about showing this by tracking several couples before and after having children, in order to see how they were affected by this decision. On average, the couples were about 1 point happier on a 10 point scale before they had their children (Myrskyla). The point to be made is essentially that this type of research is reaching the hands of many potential parents and they are starting to really question their decision to have a child. For one reason or another, perhaps they simply have too much that they want to do in their life, such as travel, that may be imeded by children, or they simply are more concerned with maintaining intimacy with their partner, these couples are realizing that the life that comes with having a child simply isn’t for them; this is something that has never been considered so deeply before; In fact, specifically wanting to maintain intimacy was “one of the most commonly cited reasons that the voluntarily
childless choose not to bear or rear children”(Blackstone). While the percentage of parents deciding to not have kids for “selfish” reasons like these is only 16% out of all childless parents (“Fewer American Couples”), that still ultimately makes up tens of thousands of lost births over the past several years (Kurtz).
For all of these reasons and perhaps some other, this shift is happening, and it seems that it is going to continue to do so, especially if the U.S. economy does not recover. With that said, it is important to be aware and prepared for some of the changes that may occur as a result of this shift, whether they be economic, cultural, or otherwise.
The first thing to be addressed regarding reduced fertility is one that often has many misconceptions around it; the economy. More often than not, people think that reduced fertility indicates a decreasing population and subsequently reduces the workforce, reducing output and ultimately economic growth. The first thing to be addressed in this misconception is that with fertility numbers such as the one we are seeing, the population is nowhere near declining. We are simply seeing a slowing of growth, which can be a good thing in an already overpopulated world. Secondly, history in countries other than America has shown us that reduced fertility can actually have astounding economic benefits. It is for this reason that China surpassed India in economic growth since the 1970’s, during the time that China’s one-child policy was in effect (Teitelbaum). The reasoning behind this is essentially that reducing births puts more of the total population in the workforce and increases the amount of older, more experienced, and overall better workers in relation to the rest of the population (Teitelbaum). In another article published by Brown University, it was pointed out that while it is difficult to determine whether the relationship is causal or correlational, it is fairly definite that we tend to see reducing fertility with improving economic conditions. To be specific, the GDP per capita of working individuals will increase (Ashraf). This could be incredibly beneficial to the U.S. economy considering its current state, and could most likely allow many parents who aren’t having kids purely for financial reasons to do so.
Another impact that ties very closely into the economy is education. Many people believe that smaller class sizes allow for kids to have greater success in school because it allows them to receive more individual attention. Smaller class sizes are also something that results from decreasing fertility. As fertility decreases, the amount of children in the country decreases relative to the rest of the population, meaning there will be fewer students per class and ultimately more attention being spent per student (Ashraf). However, it’s not just more attention that these student receive. If school budgets remain relatively the same and there are less kids, there is actually more money to invest on resources per child (Teitelbaum) .
One other potential benefit proposed by an article of the New York Times is that lower fertility results in greater social stability. The idea behind this is that by having more positions available for younger workers, since less of them are entering the workforce, there are more satisfied, productive workers in the positions they desire, rather a large group of unsatisfied, unhappy ones. Having large groups of youth in this category of not having a job or role within society that they value can have much worse consequences than one might expect: “many experts have attributed everything from terrorism to the Arab Spring to this “youthquake” of disaffected young adults in the Middle East and North Africa” (Teitelbaum). All in all, this reduction in fertility seems to bring about positive change to society.
According to a poll conducted by CNN Money, 6 in 10 people feel that the American dream is unattainable (Duke). A man growing up, getting the perfect job and a perfect wife who, despite being busy taking care of the kids all day, would have a hot dinner ready for the husband when they got home; this dream used to be strived for, but today is not just unattainable but also unwanted. It’s outdated. People don’t want to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to have children in the current economic state. Not every woman wants to sit around and take care of children while their husband works. The idea that this dream, specifically the child portion of it, is no longer just assumed to bring happiness. People have woken up and started to question what it is that will really make them happy, rather than simply being told what they want by the culture they grew up in. Ultimately, this decision of free-thought will benefit us all greatly. It may bring economic growth and more money to individuals; education may see improvement as children begin to receive more individual attention; society as a whole may become more stable, with more young people getting the jobs they really want. Our culture as a whole may start to be more accepting of the notion of not wanting children, while those that do want kids will hopefully be enabled to do so by an economic upturn. However, what must also be remembered is that having children should be one’s own life decision. It isn’t simply an economic or financial or job decision; it is something that will affect a couple’s entire life and happiness, which is most important consideration of all.
Works Cited
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