They told me I'd change my mind about not wanting kids when I got older. I'm still waiting for it to change.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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I’ve gone from worrying what would have happened in my children’s lifetime to worrying what will happen within my lifetime so I’m good.
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Happy I didn't fuck up my life and the lives of my progeny by birthing them.
Not to that age yet, but I feel slightly envious of families that I see at downhill mountain bike parks or camping or sledding. I want to have a family just like that someday :)
Sad and empty. I love kids. I had fertility treatments for years, but that did not work out. I will start IVF again in a couple of days. Hopefully it will work this time. It is one of my last chances.
I would like to adopt or have foster kids. However, I suffer from PTSD and in my country it is very difficult to adopt or foster if you have a background with mental illness. Even though my psychologist and the people in my environment all say that they think I would be able to do it and my partner does not have any mental illness, my chances are very low.
To be honest, looking any further than the next IVF makes me panic. I do not know how to live with not having kids and how to deal with that. I had a lot of bad stuff happen to me. Having children would be something I believe would have made me very happy. It feels like I failed at life. However, I just turned 40, so I know I need to give up at some point.
Don't give up on it! But don't stake your lives success on it.
Me and my wife are not going to have children (she's about ten years older then you are, we had a miscarriage and left it at that) but we have it great together.
I know it's too deaf ears atm and I really hope you'll get your wish, but please don't wager your personal happiness on it, that's disrespectful of yourself.
Thank you for the kind message. It is good to hear that it is possible to have it great even after a miscarriage. I have had two miscarriages and two biochemical pregnancies. I did not really have time tomprocess this yet, as I had to continue treatment as my fertility is further declining due to my age. I think that might be part of the emotions as well.
It is difficult for me to not wager my personal happiness on it. I have a small nephew and when I take care of him, it just makes me very happy. It makes me feel like I would be as happy or even happier with my own child. Also, I was abused as a child and I feel that I did not have parents that really loved me. It feel unfair that I am not able to experience the mother/child bond from the perspectives of a child as well as that of a motger.
I also tried to take care of my younger siblings when I was a child. I was able to provide them with some of the emotional support my parents failed to provide, but because I was too young myself I always felt like I was not able to give them what they need. I am an adult now and I feel like I am capable now of providing children with a safe and warm environment. And I feel like I have all this love to give, but there is no child to give it to. I do not know where to put it.
I don't know. Having a child will not fix all of this and a child does not exist to fix this or to make me happy. However, it could have been an area of my life that could have been beautiful and where I might have been able to give something and be valuable. And instead, this also does not work out and is another thing that goes on the pile of things that have failed in my life.
I agree that staking my life's success on it is not a good idea. But I am not sure what else I have left. I am trying to become a writer and I am writing down all my experiences from my youth and with my sister who passed away and my fertility treatments, and so on. Maybe it can help some people who experience the same things. I think that might be fulfilling maybe and a way to create something positive out of the things that feel negative now.
Wow that's a lot, thanks for sharing. I can only pretend to understand the hunkering you must feel.
The 'pikte of things that have failed' mentality is the destructive part, together with the idea that having a baby would complete you (even though you acknowledge that as a false thought).
I can't do much to help you, but wish you success. Try and be slightly more selfish for yourself outside of this idea, make yourself the child you want to show the world. Literally. We go to zoos and dunno patches and castles as those are usually places you go to with kids, but we feel like treating ourselves to it.
Do this even though you're still in limbo as to what your womb dictates about your fate.
Veel sterkte, succes met het opschrijven en verwerken. Heb jezelf lief en zoek de anderen op die dat ook doen!
(Ik had je getagd als mede Nederlander vanuit een eerdere conversatie)
It's awesome. Sure, I have moments in life that suck regardless, but in those moments I always think to myself "Wow, this would be even worse if I had kids."
In my mid 30's. Find myself thinking the same. Also when I'm feeling great it's "there's no way i could be enjoying this if i had to worry about kids"
Yup, exactly. It just seems like there's no time to relax when you have kids, you always have to be "on".
I used to take a bus home from work, and a woman that lived in my apartment took the same bus, so we always ended up walking into the building together. I'll never forget that EVERY time when she opened her apartment door, you could hear two little kids yell "MOMMY!" the second that door was opened. Maybe some people love that, but to me it always filled me with a sense of dread and exhaustion. Here was this woman who just spent a full day at work and now she has to come home and essentially start her second job of being with her kids, who of course want all her attention. I felt horrible for her, and it wasn't like she was skipping home all happy to see them, either.
Some people like it, which I'm happy for, they're the ones who should have children. But it's not for everyone and it shouldn't be stigmatized. I will happily pay taxes to fund kinder care and school. I see the value in society for kids. Just not in my own home.
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Pretty great. I have money and free time.
I sort of see the appeal of having kids, but I can barely keep things together for myself. There's no way I can support myself and kids. Even with my boyfriends income and mine, it's just not realistic.
This is the key behind the fertility crisis of first world countries. SHITS TOO EXPENSIVE. A house is 10 years worth of income, college like 3 years worth, a car (which needs to be replaced every 5-10 years) around a years worth, plus food, bills, taxes and all of this other shit makes it impossible.
Yearly childcare is a years worth of income in plenty of places, so there's that too.
Shout out to [email protected]
Edit: k, idk why you downvoted me, was trying to show you another sub with an audience directly for this question that you may want to also ask, but k go ahead and downvote me OP.
Didn’t downvote you but it’s probably bc Reddit’s original childfree subreddit is a special kind of toxic hellhole; even for Reddit… which is saying something.
Most of Reddit was a toxic hellhole. It's why I'm not on Reddit anymore.
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Just turned 50. Was childless by choice. But I Got custody of my 12 year old niece two years ago. (Very small family and There was no one else to take her.). I love her but I do miss my adult freedom.
My condolences on losing your sibling. Wonderful of you to take her in.
It’s good. Don’t have to worry about paying for any of it.
Elementary school
Middle school
High school
College
Helping out after they finish college and haven’t found a job
All the stuff during the summer
Not having to hear “ but why?!” Every ten seconds
Not having to worry about how they’ll survive in this fucked up world.
I have a lot of kids so I can't answer that question
but reddit asked it 2 days ago, word for word https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1gdm2wj/people_in_their_40s_and_50s_with_no_children_how/
I just think it's interesting to look at the difference in the user replies
Mixed, but mostly okay.
Pros: The world is massively overpopulated already. Our genes aren't particularly noteworthy. I'm not very optimistic about the future. People's happiness generally seems a lot less than it was when I was younger and I don't see that changing.
Cons: Not being able to pass anything on - my knowledge and experience, ironically much of which was gained through having time that would have been unavailable if I had had kids. As we both get older, our own care is concerning. Doing physical things around our smallholding is getting harder and a pair of young hands would be nice.
I don't begrudge other people having kids. We tried once but lost it and that kind of took the excitement out of it for us. Before we knew it, it was too late anyway.
You could look into some kind of work experience program or even troubled youth programs operating in your area that might be able to make use of your knowledge and your property?
We don't need kids to pass on what we know to the young :)
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I wanted kids when I was younger, but wasn't ready to give up my freedom. Once I was ready for kids the world (and the future in particular) looks so bleak that it doesn't seem fair to the theoretical kiddo to say 'hey, here's a dumpster fire - good luck'. Instead I babysit for my friends and family, spoil the kids around me, and sleep in on the weekend. I also have more time for activism and trying to ensure a brighter future for kiddos.
No regrets.
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I'm not good around kids, so I made a decision to be without children pretty early on. So, to answer your question, I guess it feels... normal? It's hard to describe in more detail, because I don't have a reference to compare it to.
That said, I've seen what kind of struggles - emotional, financial or otherwise - my kid-having friends and family have been going through and I would be a liar if I said I never thought "I'm glad I don't have to go through this shit" more than on one occasion.
I'm glad I don't have to go through this shit
I've thought that so many times seeing people's children around me.
Great, for me. For others, I imagine it will depend on factors such as having a compatible partner in agreement.
It sucks. I don’t have children because I’m barely functional. Can barely keep a roof over my own head, let alone maintain a romantic relationship.
I’ve wanted kids for a long time, but the only relationship that showed promise of that ended with a bunch of cheating and abuse. I eventually realized even if I was willing to put up with it, I couldn’t subject my kids to having her as a mother.
So I’m going on 42 and don’t know if I’m gonna make it.
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Great!
No ragrets.
no rugrats
Honestly it kind of sucks.
I always wanted a kid but it requires a partner who is able to be a parent and I have never had such a partner.
I had a pretty fucked up childhood and I wanted someone who could be a good mother to a child and everyone I've dated who had the ability to be a good mother was not capable of giving birth for one reason or another and everyone I've dated who's capable of giving birth was not capable of being a good mother for one reason or another.
I know it's not too late for me but it's getting pretty damn close.
Seriously like the most obvious fucking life hack.
Also, it's generally super weird how everyone tries really hard to convince you that you are wrong about it. Like I could take all of the collective time people have spent trying to give me unsolicited input on some other random topic, and it wouldn't even add up to a tenth of the time I've spent on the "why don't you want kids?" Conversation. I'm sorry but that's sus as fuck. Like some actual brain slug shit.
I have a kid. I love my kid. There's also a looooooooot more sacrifice involved than I was expecting.
Not so much the money, but time and effort. Today I wanted to leave the park and go the grocery store for ONE thing before dinner. Cue negotiations to leave the park. 10mons to walk 100 yards. Issues around refusing to use the toilet before we go (young kid and car rides). Not wanting to get out of the car at the store. I could go on. Everything is just a whole fucking ordeal. Pre kid I would have got in my car, gotten the item and come home. 15mins tops. This took 1.5hrs.
I love my kid. I'm glad we had a kid. But I do not see everyone being suited to being a parent. And no one should be forced or pressured to be one.
That's my personal opinion though.
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I love it but even in high school, I knew I didn’t want kids. People told me seeing my friends have kids would cause me to change my mind but it only reinforced my preference. Having kids is a huge amount of work and commitment (not to mention the expense). I love to travel and I’ve been able to go to places and do things you can’t (or just wouldn’t want to) do with kids. I also like that I was able to take risks with my career. It’s much easier to start a business or join an early stage company or whatever if you don’t need the stability kids need.
So, for me, it’s amazing. I feel for people who want kids but never had them, though. I know a few and they’re happy — freedom is a nice consolation prize — but it wasn’t their dream.
Good, made a decision decades ago to have a vasectomy as there are way to many people in the world and misquoting Thoreau, what use a kid if no livable planet to raise them on ?
I always felt if the need to be a parent overwhelmed, I could adopt any number of abandoned kids.
I like kids but I'd fell way to guilty about having any. Not having them also let me retire at 35 and pursue my own interests, I'm now 58.
Feels like the best decision I ever made.
I'm in way over my head as it is. I can't even imagine what it would be like having to be responsible for some gremlins, as well. We do not even dare get a cat (or two - you should always get two so they're not lonely) for the same reason. Good thing my SO sees it exactly the same way. We're both glad we didn't have children.