This article will argue for the case of not having children.

This article will not tell people to have or not to have children but merely put forward the arguments for not bringing children into this world.

Please give this article a chance.

I’ll be very interested in hearing arguments for or against having children.

To begin the case for not having children, we must first look at the demands of modern-day society in the Global North.

We have a long parenting strategy when it can easily take 25 to 30 years for a child to be truly independent of the support of their parents.

Modern post-industrial societies need a more highly sophisticated and trained workforce, which can mean individuals spend their 20s developing their craft.

By the time they reach their mid-30s, they may no longer be able to create a child, especially in the case of women, due to women only having a small number of eggs that can be fertilised.

Another factor that must be considered is the demands of modern society, particularly the workforce, if an individual works between 35 to 45 hours a week.

Add to this a further 16 hours, 12 hours forming domestic chores, and another 15 hours engaged in professional or personal development to make yourselves more valuable.

All this time leaves a child with at least 35 minutes of quality time with their parents or primary caregiver.

As it currently functions, modern society does not work with having children and is very time-consuming and resource-intensive for individuals.

The Financial Case for Not Having Children

It takes at least 18 years to raise a child in the Global North.

These are post-industrial nations that transform their economies from agricultural-based to industrial-based economies.Finally, a post-industrial economy that handles the malt value-added top of the supply chain.

For instance, Silicon Valley develops new software with new technologies, and places like China or Mexico manufacture the components due to being lower on the economic value-added supply chain.

What this means in layperson’s terms is that it will take more than 18 years for a grown man or grown woman who was 18 years old to leave the support network of their parents due to them possibly having to engage in some form of education until at least the age of 28.Individuals can get a PhD in the United Kingdom before they are 24 years old, provided they performed excellently during their bachelor’s degree and can progress into a PhD.

In England in 2021, the total cost of raising a child to 18 now stands at £160,692 for a couple and £193,801 for a lone parent.

For China, the average cost of raising a child until the age of 18 was 485,000 yuan ($76,556) in China in 2019, which was 6.9 times China’s GDP per capita, much higher than many countries including the US, France, Germany and Japan, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

And finally, for South Korea and Japan, the average cost of raising a child to the majority works out as KRW365 million (€251,562, $271,957).The cost of raising a child in Tokyo from birth to college graduation now ranges from 28.59 million yen to 63.01 million yen, AIU Insurance Co.

Raising a child and maintaining a family is costly and time-consuming, and these commitments mean parents have to make sacrifices.

The author Douglas Murray stated that ‘in life, we get to choose what we regret’, and this is our choice.

We get to choose what we regret as long as we make a choice, understand those regrets and are happy with them.

This will mean that we make a well-informed decision.

According to JFK, ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself’ This is relevant because making decisions based on fear will ultimately lead to poor choices.

This goes for and against having children.

The Rising Divorce Rates

The breakdown of the traditional nuclear family, the parent typically being a mum and a father and their children, is leading to the rise of divorce.

The reasons for divorce are numerous and complex.

This could be due to people living longer, women entering the workplace and a lack of realism in the perception of mature relationships.

The traditional nuclear family is not truly very traditional and is very much something born out of the urbanisation and industrialisation of the 19th century.

A further example can be seen in the British Empire, particularly the British Isles.

In 1800, only 20% of people lived in cities, and the remaining 80% survived by farming and were people in their communities.

In these old environments that were far more traditional, child-raising was far more communal.

It would be the wives of the communities with their families now living together within a set of households or villagers that would help support each other in raising children.

It was the movement of people from sustaining themselves by farming and small community textile businesses that had people move to the cities, which led to the breakdown of traditional family structures until the present day when the family as a unit has been all but destroyed.

With the bonds of family and marriage continually decaying and family connections no longer being perceived as relevant, no strong support network is available for couples when raising a child.

This is too much pressure for people to go under when having children because a mother or a father may have to spend a decade or more out of the workforce — placing their careers on hold to look after children all by themselves without the support networks of their families.

An added burden is that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce, with a new census showing which areas in London and the UK have the highest rates.

The divorce rate in the United Kingdom is 42 per cent, with many believing these rates have increased in recent years.

And for the United States, the situation is even worse percentage of marriages that end in divorce in the US varies between 40% and 50%.

Concluding Comments

I hope whoever is reading this can understand the argument I’m trying to highlight for not having children.

I would be very interested in reading comments from people who can think of other arguments for not having or having children.

The rising divorce has only been briefly mentioned in this article because I wanted the arguments to focus primarily on children, not the focus on relationships.

It is very relevant to add that the breakdown of relationships between men and women and the reasons for not having children is because people cannot be honest regarding their relationships.

It’s also important that people communicate their needs with their partners.

I believe that the key to a successful relationship and to pursuing the goal of a family if that is what they wish to pursue, is meeting each other’s physical and emotional needs.

As for not having children, as long as individuals get more meaning from their work or their pursuits, which they believe they cannot get from having children, that is a very fair and convincing argument providing it’s a choice not made out of fear.

Thank you for your time in reading this article; a sister article will be published sometime this week on the case of having children.

Kind regards, and thanks for reading.

Sources

Child Poverty and Action Group COST OF A CHILD link

Global Times Cost of raising a child until age 18 in China 6.9 times China’s GDP per capita, higher than US, France and Germany: report link

DW South Korea most expensive country in world to raise kids link

The Japanese Times Raising child costs 63 million yen: study link

Evening Standard London and UK’s divorce hotspots revealed: new data shows how many marriages and partnerships breakup link

Legal Jobs 35 Encouraging Stats on the Divorce Rate in America for 2023 link

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