In the "largest-ever study in the United States to examine the relationship between fatherhood and cardiovascular disease," Michael Eisenberg, MD, has found that childless men are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease than fathers.
Melanie Notkin (of SavvyAuntie.com) recently wrote a piece in the Huffington Post about her experiences of being a woman without children of her own, but who is an aunt to many. In her article she referenced to the new Sarah Jessica Parker film, I Don't Know How She Does It, and the lead character's junior associate's "child-phobic" ways.
Only one reproductive choice is stigmatized: voluntary childlessness. Many protest against this cultural bias, arguing that childfree (preferred over childless) should be a respected choice, says Berkeley clinical psychologist Mardy S. Ireland, Ph.D., author of Reconceiving Women: Separating Motherhood from Female Identity (Guilford, 1993). Motherhood is the defining life experience for many women, but it's not for everyone. Being female doesn't mean your instincts, talents and needs destine you for maternity.
If you're happy and you know it, well, chances are you're young, married and childless. If you're British, that is. Initial findings from the U.K.'s Understanding Society study show that young, hitched couples without kids had the most satisfying relationships. The survey is tracking 40,000 households over the next two decades to get a better handle on people's lives, experiences and, presumably, bucket lists.
The number of American women without children has risen to an all-time high of 1 in 5, a jump since the 1970s when 1 in 10 women ended their childbearing years without having a baby, according to the Pew Research Center. About 1.9 million women aged 40-44 - or 18 percent - were childless in 2008, an 80 percent increase since 1976, when just 580,000 -- 10 percent of those in that age bracket -- had never given birth, the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey shows.
I knew when I was 12 that I didn't want children. My mother tells me she distinctly remembers me storming into the house after babysitting the neighbors' kids and announcing angrily, "I'm never getting married and I'm never having kids."
I am a woman. I have all the biological requirements to have a child. Yet, I do not have the instincts or rational desire to do so. Does that make me less of a woman to not want to have a child either by using my body, my eggs, or my money to adopt?
Love Bytes: Nine must-click sex, love and relationship links.
It looks like Kelly Clarkson is making the rounds while promoting her new album All I Ever Wanted. In addition to mentioning that she has never been in love, the pop star also mentions that she'd like to remain childless. The original American Idol champion seems a little more interesting today than she did yesterday. And the kids really seem to dig "My Life Would Suck Without You."
More and more people are finding themselves engaged in "nontraditional" relationships; which leaves the traditional definition of family (a heterosexual couple marrying to have children) increasingly ambiguous. Here Susan Piver wonders whether the absence of a child is indicative of the absence of family with couples.
