Childfree

[Magickman]

We are hearing more today, than in years past, about both single and married folks, who are deciding that parenthood is not for them.

Regarding single people, I think they are wiser not to have children without a spouse. Better to get married before starting a family.

For those who identify as Childfree, it is their stated intention not to have any children at all, even in marriage.

This is not altogether a new idea. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a cult known as the Shakers, who were opposed to procreation, like today’s Childfree people.

What happened to the Shakers, was that they died out, because they had no children.

This may be instructive, about the Childfree movement. They will attract a few converts to their philosophy, but will not become an enduring mass movement, since their lifestyle is a dead end. They will leave no decendents, and are unlikely to greatly gain in numbers.

I am a free will adherent. Other people can have kids or not. It is up to them. It is not my job to give procreation advice.

If a society loses interest in procreation, it will rapidly decline, both in numbers and influence. What other result could occur?

The Childfree people may not realize it, but theirs is not a lasting enterprise.

 

[Diamantina]

Do you think that a Catholic who does not want children and who has discerned a vocation to a single life in the world should call himself or herself childfree? I have never married nor had kids, and at 43, I think it is unlikely that I will do either. Besides, I do not think that I would make a good mother. Consecrated virginity in the world might be an option for me, but my health (I have a history of serious depression and borderline personality disorder, and am on SSI) and age preclude me from entering religious life.

From what I have read, much of the childfree culture has a disdain for organized religion. Also, most of the childfree seem to be sexually active and use artificial birth control. I think that most childfree people would find a chaste and celibate childfree Catholic paradoxical, to say the least.

 

[Moscati]

The philosophy underlying the term “childfree” is sad. It presumes that children are a burden, something akin to a disease. It brings to mind the sort of glee one might feel at being pronounced “cancer-free”.

Obviously not everyone will have (or ought to have) children–single people, consecrated religious, clergy, some married couples . . . but children are not some plague.