I was never that girl who dreamed of a perfect wedding or staying home with a kid. I love kids, they are so fun and funny. But it’s not something I could have ever done alone. That just never happened. I have a big family and there are always little ones around. I am a great aunt 8 times over and I like to think I’m good at it.

To have or not to have kids. That’s a lot of pressure for a lot of people. Either way life can be fulfilling. If you like kids, but can’t or don’t want your own... you can still find a way to have them in you life.

I could give you some politically-correct answer and list off a dozen reasons why I never wanted kids (expense, environmental concerns, etc.), but the simple fact is that whole traditional lifestyle never appealed to me. My idea of the perfect family is me and my husband, with nothing coming between us. And that whole lifestyle ... it's not just one thing; it's everything, sum total. Life has a lot of tedious administrative minutiae without heaping more of it on. I always wanted a quiet, peaceful, family of two. Two's company; three's a crowd (and four or more is a g.d. commune). For many years, my CF spouse and I had that kind of a life, and it was so incredibly sweet!

I have regretted a lot in my life and would do a lot over if I had the chance, but not having or raising kids wasn't one of those things. Being childfree has enhanced and added to my life, and it has made me a more tolerant, generous person (I work in philanthropy and am a philanthropist myself). Simply because I have more of myself to give.

Overpopulated as it is.
Why add more when I dislike the feral, time-sucking, resource-draining monsters anyway?
Rather save cats.
?

I dislike children intensely. Their voices are piercingly shrill and they don't speak English, the same way I don't speak Child. You can't reason with them at all. Babies are even worse.

Even beyond that, I'm a narcoleptic--I have sleep attacks, and just don't have the energy to chase after something that needs monitored 24/7.

Furthermore, I'm tocophobic. Just the thought of pregnancy makes me panic. Even if I weren't, I'd have to d/c most of my medications for nine months and nothing is worth that.

I was always too selfish to have kids.I believe that when you make the decision to have a kid that your life stops being about you anymore.turning that kid into a productive member of society and trying not to fuck it up becomes your #1 priority.
But then I married a woman with a kid and for the first time in my life felt what real love was with my stepdaughter.I mean you love be your folks,siblings,girl/boyfriends,pets,motorcycle (my motorcycle should be further up on the list????
When that little girl came into my life it profoundly changed me.
Of course marriage went to shit(ex wife had substantial abuse issues)and she’s now on 4th husband (I was #2)and I haven’t seen my little squirt in years.
So now I’m back to being selfish,retirement isn’t that far away and I don’t want to raise kids when I’m supposed to be fishing and drinking
Plus the world is fucked up and there’s enough people anyway.life rolls on????

I enjoy babysitting, but then they get to go home. The disciplining part hurts. I've watched friends having to deal with their unruly offspring and either my heart breaks for the kid or I want to knock some sense into my friend for being so harsh. I use to think it was I never met the right partner but now I know that was just an excuse. In my heart of hearts I never wanted the responsiblity.

So along with being generally aggravated by kids, I would make a terrible parent. I was too well-behaved as a kid, and never needed any discipline, so I in turn have zero disciplinary skills.

Beyond that though, this world is messed up. Kids are being shot, molested, and kidnapped. The environment is going to hell. The economy is going to make Mad Max look like summer vacation when oil hits the wall. Our legislators want to regulate a woman's uterus and deregulate every conflict of interest they can get their hands on.

Why would I want to make anybody deal with that, if I can't fix it myself?

I don't care for kids.

I have a rare form of muscular dystrophy that runs in my family, I have hated having this and do not wish to risk passing it to an offspring

To each his/her own! I've read all the postings here and I've assessed my own situation. I am happy that I had children (although part of their upbringing was when I was out of the house). I'm sure they like it that I had children - as I believe they enjoy their lives and stations. As for me I'm totally sure that I'm glad that my parents had children. Were it not so - I wouldn't have had the trials, tribulations, pains, joys and happiness that I've experienced during my lifetime. I'm glad to be alive. I am reminded of the movie - "A wonderful life." If the guys life hadn't been saved early on - the community that he lived and thrived in would have been very different. Because he lived, many others did too. For those of you who haven't had children, you'll never know what your life would have been had you had children. It could have been better, it could have been worse. That's the thing about life, there are so many alternatives that give no preview of where things will eventually lead. We make decisions and we hope for the best. The rest of the story, some/many times, is up to FATE! I'm glad (and my children are glad) that I had children!

I’ve just never wanted them. I decided at 10 I didn’t want any, I thought they were annoying lol! Also I don’t want to be worried about them all the time, too many crazy people out there. I groom my own dogs and never leave them with anyone because I fear for their safety. I guess with all the bad things that happened to me just enforced this feeling.

My other is environmental concern.

I think upbringing of a is a serious responsibility and I don't think that it ll bring any sense of fulfillment or joy to me.

I'm antinatalist. I consider procreating to be the worst thing you can do. It literally creates harm, creates the capacity for harm, subjects them to it without their consent. It means causing your child to both harm and be harmed. It makes every other harm possible, and is the ultimate reason those are experienced, and if you had the ability to prevent that and chose not to, you have responsibility for the consequences, which can extend to generations of descendants that suffer and die needlessly.

I am a carrier of Becker Muscular Dystrophy and had no desire to put myself out there as a martyr to a child that would live a miserable existence and die young. I could never do that to another human being and I love children too much to put one through it.

My extremely disfunctional family, I can see both our parents in my siblings and how they raise their children.
I'm not going to take that chance even though I would love to have my own kids.

I've never had the urge. The one person I would have considered it with broke up with me because he convinced himself I never wanted kids. (that was his excuse anyway) I have many reasons, there are too many people on this planet, my cats are needy enough so I don't know how I could raise a kid when I can't even stand dog level neediness, I've never been financially stable enough, I just... don't. It's kind of like religion. I just don't need it. I just don't want kids. I work with kids though and really like that. I get my kid fix and then send them on their way and don't have to deal with the gross parts of having kids. Also, the idea of being pregnant just... ew. I know, people say it's amazing, but to each their own. No thanks. I've heard plenty of horror stories. I wouldn't want to be a mom unless I could stay home with them and that's never going to happen. Maybe someday I'll adopt. And I wouldn't mind dating someone who had kids, but as to having my own, that ship has sailed.

@DancesWithWorms physical problems prevented pregancy in my case and I was devasted, however as I've got older I'm glad I never got to have a child/children. They would be seriously fucked up by my car crash of a life.

I'm mostly child-free because my ex-wife had a good lawyer and I see my kids only 5 days out of two weeks.

There are simply too many people on the planet. I choose not to reproduce to minimize my environmental impact.

I meant to select "other" as well as the first, third and fifth. Damn. I considered clicking the second one, but decided I'd rather elaborate on it since its...it doesnt seem quite right. I think mainly the use of happy; I would substitute "content". Could be content with but happier without. I already feel like I don't have 90% of the time I want/need in this world to do everything I want/need...a kid/s would drain that to .01% left for my own independent (or partnered) life and desired activities. And the other option was for I DON'T WANT TO GIVE FUCKING BIRTH. Or be pregnant, but that one doesn't/quite/ deserve caps. It's close though. Since mote of my boyfriends have wanted kids (eventually) than not, Ive considered adoption or surrogate for the future...but as I get older and more adult and shit, I imagine I'll be even less likely to compromise on these particular beliefs/feelings.

My primary reason was that there would be a 50-50 chance that my child could end up like my younger sister who was very narcissistic and unpleasant often when an adult. She stole from me more than once and was not the sister I grew up with when she died.

I took my exes three kids to the park one day, obviously there as the guardian, and the looks I got were very distrustful. I even over heard one woman say, "I wouldn't let him watch my kids." For all she knew they were my kids. I may have well been their father as he is a scum bag and bailed completely on his family. I find it to be uncomfortable to be around others kids as many people automatically assume I am some kind of predator. That's sad. Also, the world is over populated, I'd rather not contribute to that.

When I was young and nieve my first and longest relationship was with a woman who already had 2 boys. I really wanted a child then but turned out she was really never going to have my children and while perswading me she was really trying was doing just the opposite. I love my boys and consider them to be my sons even though I never made them. I hated her for doing that when I realised but now I would shake her hand because this isn't a great planet to live on due to overpopulation.

I haven't been found yet.