I'm not having children. There are a lot of reasons.

1) I'm a woman married to another woman. Yes, one of us could get a donor, but it's one more hurdle, and it means we won't ever have one accidentally.

2) Debt. We've got some debt that needs to be paid off, and babies are expensive.

3) We'd need a bigger home. Right now the house we're in is paid off in full, and we'd have to go through the whole home-selling/buying process if we wanted enough space for kids.

4) Health concerns. I'm depressed, diabetic, and have fibromyalgia. My doctor says I also likely have PCOS and due to that I might not even be fertile. So I'm not a good candidate to try to get pregnant. My wife has her own health concerns, which are genetic, and she doesn't want to pass them down to a kid. I don't want to pass on the fibro or diabetes either. They both suck.

5) We're happy as is. We've got cats instead of kids (insert lesbians-with-cats joke here?). A lot of our friends have kids, so we're both pretty content to just be "aunties" to all our friends' kids.

> How many people here would say that they have actively decided not to have children?

Plenty of people do. For many different reasons.

Some people do not like kids, some people like their life as it is, some people are in a relationship that they are happy in but that they are sure of that it won't survive having children, some people carry genes that they do not wish to pass on and so on. The list is endless, probably at least as long as the list of reasons why people do want children, possibly even longer.

I've known for as long as I could remember that I didn't want kids. Just never seemed interesting or appealing to me. Had a vasectomy around age 30.

38, and unless I find a seriously convincing argument from the next woman in my life. Not happening. I don't have a desire to have a kid, but it's fun to interact with them in short bursts(friends). This of course can change tomorrow, that's life.

Decided actively I don't want children at around age 30. Married, and currently seek a vasectomy so my wife doesn't have to be on birth control and I never have to worry about having a child ever again.

38yo Canadian male. Made a conscious decision to never have kids when I was 30. Haven't changed my mind.

Also the number of people living alone seems to be rising. I wonder what % of that are active choices.

Wife and I decided ages ago to not have children. I had a vascetomy when I was ~25. I think our reasons differ, and mine are confused, but it's very clear to both of us that we never want children. Oddly, she liked being an aunt though, so there is that.

32 male here. I actually love kids but my partner and I decided it’s not a good time and if we do want kids we should adopt. There’s still plenty of kids still without parents...

I have. Generally, I don't want children for reasons that I don't think much good would come out of it.

have 2 and would consider having 3 if it wasnt for the horribly short maternity leave and cost of daycare. I just can't do the pump at work, wash bottles all night again. I also anticipate I wont make any savings for the next 1-2 years with the cost of child care. It sucks, it really really does.

Me (25 y.o east coast male, long-term relationship, no debt but decided due to other factors)