More women are choosing to live a "childfree" life

For Vanessa Navarre, 49, having children wasn’t something she saw for herself. At a young age, Navarre says she knew she didn’t want to be a mother.

“Throughout my life, I never grew up with the whole ‘I want children’ or ‘I want a family.’ For me, there was never a gut-feeling for me to be a mom,” says Navarre. “Being a teacher doesn’t make me want kids either. I love my students, but I never wanted to continue parenting when I got home.”

Today, Navarre is volunteering internationally and helping students with disabilities.Navarre says she is in a happy relationship with someone that also doesn’t want to have kids.

Navarre isn’t alone in leading a “childfree life.” According to recent data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “America’s fertility rate steadily declined between 2014 and 2017. 2017 marked the lowest rate in over 30 years, with 60.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44.”

In a 2018 poll from Morning Consult by The New York Times, of nearly 2,000 people ages 20 to 45, 36 percent of survey respondents said they don’t want children because “childcare is too expensive,” 49 percent of respondents don’t want children because of the “environment and economy,” and 42 percent of respondents said they don’t want children because they “want more leisure time.”

Navarre says if she had children, she wouldn’t have been able to travel, work, or volunteer as much as she has.

“I’ve been able to volunteer internationally and that’s expensive. Through volunteering I’ve been able to travel the world, learn about different countries, and teach in different communities. There’s so much I’ve done and still want to do, and I just see kids holding me back,” says Navarre.

Additionally, instead of having children, women are choosing higher education and career opportunities, according to Brady Hamilton, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics.

In an article published by Mic, a media company that caters to millennials, writer, Elizabeth Plank states, “For most young women, working is not an option — it's a necessity. Some data even shows that young women today focus on their career more than their male counterparts. That shift has had a significant impact on women's family decisions; because young women today rank their career as more important than it has ever been for their demographic, having children has become an option instead of a prerequisite for a fulfilling adulthood.”

Navarre is now back in school working towards her master’s degree. She says she wouldn’t have been able to go back to school at 49 years-old if she had kids at home because of the time and energy it takes to be a mother.

“Women are taught at an early age that we can do whatever and have whatever we want, but unfortunately, women can’t have it all. We can’t have a family, go to work full-time, go to school, and travel. We have to make a choice,” says Navarre.

In her article, “What’s Wrong With Women Who Don’t Want Kids?,” Plank says, “Despite the fact that women who don't want kids are a growing demographic, it's clear that the stigma against them remains strong. Although men may sometimes be criticized for opting out of childbearing, they don't face nearly the same amount of vitriol as childless women, who often get cast as ‘shallow’ or ‘cat ladies’for choosing not toprocreate.”

Navarre says when she tells people she doesn’t want kids they find it sad she doesn’t and consider the “childfree” life selfish.

“People will always tell me I won’t feel like a complete woman unless I have kids, or they reassure me my biological clock will kick in. It’s frustrating, yes, but I’m at the age now where I could care less what other people think. It’s not sad to not want kids...it’s just a choice. If people want to call me selfish that’s fine. It’s not like my kids will care.”