This article is about the choice not to have children. For the inability to have children despite one's desire to have them, see Childlessness § Involuntary.
Voluntary childlessness or childfreeness[1][2] describes the active choice not to have children. The word childfree first appeared sometime before 1901[3] and entered common usage among feminists during the 1970s.[4][5] The suffix -free refers to the freedom and personal choice of those to pick this lifestyle. The meaning of the term childfree extends to encompass the children of others (in addition to one's own children), and this distinguishes it further from the more usual term childless, which is traditionally used to express the idea of having no children, whether by choice or by circumstance.[6] In the research literature, the term child-free or childfree has also been used to refer to parents currently not living with their children, for example because they have already grown up and moved out.[7] In common usage, childfree might be used in the context of venues or activities wherein (young) children are excluded even if the people involved may be parents, such as a childfree flight[8] or a childfree restaurant.[9]
In most societies and for most of human history, choosing not to have children was both difficult and socially undesirable, except for celibate individuals. The availability of reliable birth control (which has severed the link between sexuality and reproduction),[10][11] more opportunities for financial security (especially for women),[12] better healthcare (which has extended human life expectancy), and elderly care financed by the government or by one's own savings rather than one's family has made childlessness a viable option,[13][14] even if this choice might still be frowned upon by society at large. Nevertheless, in some modern societies, being childfree has become not just more tolerated but also more common.[15][16]
^Leroux, Marie-Louise; Pestieau, Pierre; Ponthiere, Gregory (2022). "Childlessness, childfreeness and compensation". Social Choice and Welfare. 59: 1–35. doi:10.1007/s00355-021-01379-y. hdl:2268/266029. S2CID 210146775.
^"Definition of CHILD-FREE". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
^Savage, Maddy (February 14, 2023). "The adults celebrating child-free lives". BBC Future. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
^Walker, Ellen (January 19, 2014). "Childfree Trend on the Rise: Four Reasons Why!". Psychology Today. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
^The obsolete term "childerless"—meaning "without children"—is given, for example in Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1971. p. 343. ISBN 9780717285006. LCCN 76-188038.
^de Vaus, D. (April 2004). "Diversity and change in Australian families". Australian Institute for Family Studies. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
^Muther, Christopher (March 16, 2023). "Would you pay more to be on a plane without children? A majority of Americans want adult-only flights". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
^Boesveld, Sarah (October 9, 2012). "Demand for child-free zones grows as more adults opt out of parenthood". National Post. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
^Buonadonna, Paola; Venema, Vibeke; Lane, Megan (29 July 2010). "The women who choose not to be mothers". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
^Brenot, Philippe; Coryn, Laetitia (2017). "Chapter 11 - The 20th Century: Sexual Liberation". The Story of Sex: A Graphic History through the Ages. Translated by McMorran, Will. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal. ISBN 978-0-316-47222-7.
^Burn-Murdoch, John (March 29, 2024). "Why family-friendly policies don't boost birth rates". Financial Times. Archived from the original on March 29, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
^Saskia Aukema (13 November 2016). "Hoezo heb jij geen kinderen?" [Why don't you have children?]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
^Stegeman, Lotte (14 May 2020). "Waarom hebben zoveel mensen een kinderwens?" [Why do so many people have a desire to have children?]. Quest (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
^Cite error: The named reference Bodin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference :37 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
and 25 Related for: Voluntary childlessness information
Voluntarychildlessness or childfreeness describes the active choice not to have children. The word childfree first appeared sometime before 1901 and...
Childlessness is the state of not having children. Childlessness may have personal, social or political significance. Childlessness, which may be by choice...
Salon.com recommends that childless people adopt VHEMT's arguments when facing "probing questions" about their childlessness. Knight's organization has...
no kids" or "dual income, no kids", referring to couples who are voluntarilychildless. It describes a couple without children living together while both...
including anti-intellectualism, commercialism, consumerism, dysgenics, voluntarychildlessness, and overpopulation. 20th Century Fox was hesitant to promote the...
kept afloat by a small group of dedicated geniuses, in Idiocracy, voluntarychildlessness among high-IQ couples leaves only automated systems to fill that...
Infertility and childlessness stigmas are social and cultural codes that identify the inability to have children as a disgraceful state of being. Broadly...
anthropology at Tel Aviv University in 2007. Her thesis dealt with voluntarychildlessness in the very pro-natal Israeli society. She continued on to complete...
name of Non-Parents' Day. The day is aimed at celebrating people who voluntarily choose not to have children and to foster acceptance of the childfree...
attacks she would experience. Two months later, she explained her voluntarychildlessness, saying "It's just not in me". She further claimed that being body...
decline in Sweden.: 10 Childlessness Familialism Family economics Household Nepotism Parent Stepfamily Voluntarychildlessness Although married women...
Szirtes. She also appeared on Backlash, a BBC2 documentary on voluntarychildlessness, wrote and performed in the STV/Assembly Television Best of the...
2019 interview with fansite WrestleZone, Natalya confirmed her voluntarychildlessness, stating, "I’ve never wanted to have kids. I was very close to...
Childlessness is the state of not having children. Childlessness may have personal, social or political significance. Childlessness may be voluntary childlessness...
Peck and Judith Senderowitz "A Baby Maybe" 1975 by Elizabeth Whelan "Childless by Choice" 1975 by Jean Veevers "The Parent Test: How to Measure and Develop...
employment and with regard to UK tax legislation. In addition to the voluntary childfree, the issues Kidding Aside speaks on also affect the lives of...
title is a voluntary communal organisation led by a militant woman which has formed to root out dissidents. Novels portal Voluntarychildlessness "The Baby...
BBC News. 16 July 2014. Gillespie, Rosemary (1 January 1999). "Voluntarychildlessness in the United Kingdom". Reproductive Health Matters. 7 (13): 43–53...
concluding of human reproduction. Audianism Borborites ChildlessnessVoluntarychildlessness Human population planning Nihilism Philosophical pessimism...
cancer patients Population control Sterility Surrogate marriage Voluntarychildlessness Vos T, Allen C, Arora M, Barber RM, Bhutta ZA, Brown A, et al....
interests Morality and legality of abortion Sex-selective abortion Voluntarychildlessness Age limit Age of consent Age of criminal responsibility Age of...
State Duma that would ban the dissemination of information on voluntarychildlessness. In November 2023, all private healthcare clinics in occupied Crimea...
advocate of abortion law reform and in promoting acceptance of voluntarychildlessness in The Netherlands. Since 2001 he was a special professor at North-West...
face the same amount of social pressure to have children the way voluntarilychildless women do. But as their economic prospects improve, most millennials...
has chosen to remain unmarried and childless throughout his life, a decision he attributes to voluntarychildlessness. He identifies as an atheist. He was...
Global Information