childfree

A growing number of Latin American women are choosing not to give birth in a radical departure from the traditional family roles that have long dominated in the region. -

I don't have any, I don't want any. But I work with them as part of my job, sometimes all the way down to babies, and damn if I don't love 'em all the same.

I guess it's just nice to have the best of both worlds: the freedom of childfree life and the benefit of being able to play with them, because they are genuinely adorable and fun.

(I realize people probably don't care; I'm mostly posting to post in the name of generating more fediverse content)

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/58875792

Holy shit, talk about everything people hate about Americans wrapped into a single person. Zero empathy for other people around her, so selfish that she twists herself into thinking she's right, and worse tries to gaslight the reader into thinking they're wrong for ever thinking about other people or respect.

It reminds me of the first time I was in DC. I visited the WW2 memorial and it was one of the first times it hit me, I had multiple family members in the war, and I was walking around to the states. Serene. Peaceful, reflecting. Then a family came by and two kids got in the pool. And worse the family laughed and started taking pictures. One of the most disrespectful things I've ever seen, just spitting in the face of the people who had died.

Basically they're completely miserable and evil. Their life revolves around annoying me, and they both stay at home all day. I think the husband might work from home but honestly, could be that neither works at all.

I don't have a problem with this except for the fact that when I had a work from home customer service position I had to quit because they wouldn't stop banging crap and having nervous breakdowns cause I guess they couldn't stand hearing my voice. Not to mention it literally sounds like a zoo 24/7, I've never met more unhinged children and I think something is actually mentally wrong with them. They will both cry at least 20 times a day, literally screetching and they sound MISERABLE, it's not shrieks of joy.

Moving is NOT an option (long story). I haven't slept in literal years, their children both literally SCREAM at the top of their lungs in the middle of the night regularly too. If they don't wake me up, their parents slamming the doors full force do. It's honestly traumatizing to hear them crying.

I am a QUIET person, don't have guests , don't watch tv, don't listen to music etc etc etc. Any time I make the SMALLEST noise during the day they will SLAM SOMETHING FULL FORCE right after. Literally every single time.

Their favourite abuse tactic though is to torment me psychologically by lurking around my car. FULL DISCLOSURE THERE ARE NO LAWS AGAINST ANY OF TIS WHERE I LIVE so i have to find a way to deal with it myself

First of all, it's a designated parking spot in an apartment complex, and I have zero legal recourse for any of it.

1. They sit on and lean on my car
2. They bring giant sharp objects between the small gap between my car and the other car, and my car and the wall
3. They bring their baby stroller between those as well and roll it back and forth
4. They let their children ride BICYCLES between the small gap as well
5. They throw their cigarette butts there, as well as sunflower seed shells
6. Car has scratches, scuff marks and FOOTPRINTS on it
7. After telling them to stop, they got their friend to come the next day and do the exact same thing. She also placed a giant piece of paper on the ground right beside my car, just to annoy me, and "dropped" her receipt as well after loitering there for 20 mins for no reason and unzipping her bag to get that stuff out
8. When the original perpetrators came back the next day, they decided to instead just be right beside my car, moving their baby stroller back and forth in front of it. I activated my car alarm to get them to **** off, and they called building management complaining that I was "harassing" them and have "something against their children". She claimed the alarm "woke her baby up from it's nap" yet she stood right beside the loud beeping for THREE WHOLE MINUTES with the stroller, before moving away.
9. They regularly get their kids to draw ginormous and hideous 6 ft x 6ft chalk drawings, only in front of my car, and nowhere else
10. There is literally ZERO reason for them to loiter around my car.

First of all, there's an entire parking lot. Secondly, there are approximately 7 parks in extremely close proximity, most of which are a 15-30 second walk from the parking lot, the others within 2-15 minutes.

They are literally just doing it to annoy me, and trying to make it seem like I am some evil person that "has something against them and is unhinged" and that they "did absolutely nothing wrong" and I "have something against their CHILDREN!!!!!"

Edit: to anyone suggesting to record it, how? Which camera should I use? My phone doesn't pick the sound up well, which mic should I use?

Good news! Article is paywalled but

https://archive.md/CWwUB (archived link)

Three more EU member states — including the most populous, Germany — have joined the list of countries with “ultra-low” fertility rates, highlighting the extent of the region’s demographic challenges.

Official statistics show Germany’s birth rate fell to 1.35 children per woman in 2023, below the UN’s “ultra-low” threshold of 1.4 — characterising a scenario where falling birth rates become tough to reverse.

Estonia and Austria also passed under the 1.4 threshold, joining the nine EU countries — including Spain, Greece and Italy — that in 2022 had fertility rates below 1.4 children per woman.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/29563625

In over 30 years of practice, Dr. Errol Billinkoff rarely saw a man without kids come into his Winnipeg clinic to get a vasectomy. But since the pandemic began, he says it's become an almost daily occurrence.

And he's not alone.

"At first, I thought I was the only one who was noticing this," Billinkoff, who brought a no-scalpel vasectomy procedure to Winnipeg in the early 1990s, told CBC News in a November interview.

"But I am part of an international chat group where doctors who do vasectomies participate and the topic came up, and it's like everybody notices it."

Welp, will they come after this Lemmy sub? /s

Following on from this post

https://slrpnk.net/post/14377077

https://archive.is/fhpYd

I don't always love his videos, but this one hits home.

I'm childfree for many reasons, but there are so many obvious ones - no one should be wondering why millennials are choosing not to have kids.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8929454

Homo sapiens has evolved to reproduce exponentially, expand geographically, and consume all available resources. For most of humanity’s evolutionary history, such expansionist tendencies have been countered by negative feedback. However, the scientific revolution and the use of fossil fuels reduced many forms of negative feedback, enabling us to realize our full potential for exponential growth. This natural capacity is being reinforced by growth-oriented neoliberal economics

Many decades aho I went child free mostly becase of this, it seems it's just getting worse.

Hi all,

As our community is still small and not overly active, I thought instead of trying to have a weekly or monthly chatter thread up as a sticky, we could try a perpetual one and see what happens.

So anything you feel doesn't warrant a post of its own, just put it here.

Cheers and take care!

I'm in my early thirties and adamantly childfree. I'm lucky enough to be in a long-term relationship with someone who brought up her desire to be childfree on more or less our first date. But I am not having too much luck with my friends from childhood and university - they all seem to be wanting kids, and learning of their pregnancies leaves me with a feeling of sadness. I don't hate kids and think no one should have them, and I am happy for them if they truly wanted this, but I also know what them having kids will mean - we are essentially putting our friendship on hiatus, and I still don't know whether waiting 10 years for the kids to be a bit more independent and not requiring as much attention will mean I suddenly have friends again, but somehow I very much doubt it. And I also don't want 10 years without other friends than my girlfriend. She is in very much the same situation, and while we are good at making the best out of not having kids and stressing about having them, we both would want to be able to hang out with good friends once in a while, both common between us, but also some that are exclusive to each of us.

My assumption is that this is quite common - so I am hoping someone would like to share some success stories in turning this situation around. :)

I woke up this Sunday and the house was dead silent. I had time to lay in bed until 9:30 AM or so. I went downstairs, ground my coffee beans, made a pour-over for myself with some toast.

I wouldn't have it any other way. There's nothing better than having this time alone to just sit and think. On weekdays, I can come home from work and actually have time to decompress and do nothing. I have time for reading and hobbies.

I thought I'd take a moment and count my blessings for being childfree.

What helped you make the decision to be child-free? How do I be sure about what I want? Looking for recommendation - resources, articles, books etc.

My partner just let me know he would be ready to start trying in a year. My head just spun. I am not ready now at 31 (as a woman and my clock is going tick-tock) and I don't think I will ever be ready. I am neither excited about the process of birthing nor does a crying pooping tantrum-throwing machine excite me!

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share my story real quick. I had a bilateral salpingectomy in March of 2020 (squeezed in just weeks before the big panini). All went well. I healed up and it seemed like everything was fine. Hell, my scars looked great! Well... Over the course of several months, and eventually years, it became clear something happened. I started getting really bad pain in my bellybutton area each month on my period. Then I started actually bleeding from my belly button each month. Then the pain became nearly constant, also coming on during ovulation too. I'm also allergic to bandage adhesives, so you can imagine the nightmare each month when I'd have to somehow manage the bleeding, but that's besides the point.

I'm now recovering from a surgery to remove the endometrial umbilical hernia, which I ignored for far too long. When they did my laparoscopic sterilization, the endo cells migrated where they shouldn't have, and reproduced. I'm childfree af but also an endometrial mess with a 3-4in incision/scar who will no longer have a bellybutton at all after this surgery (too much damage done by the endometriosis—it was not worth reconstruction according to the surgeon). Thankfully I wasn't big on bellybutton piercings, but still, it's unsettling to go in to a surgery not knowing they'll take a whole-ass part of your anatomy off that you're not expecting. It feels like some autonomy was taken from me there, but at the same time, I'd certainly rather have that than the amount of pain I was in.

I say all that just as a cautionary tale and food for thought. I still think that my snip was the best decision I could have made for myself so this isn't a "I shouldn't have done it and here's why you shouldn't either" post. I love being sterile. But I also wish I knew about this VERY MINIMAL but possible risk before I had my original surgery, because when it comes down to it, sterilization is a procedure of bodily autonomy—and everyone deserves to know the possible outcomes even if they're unlikely.

Open to questions. AMA.

Don't ask me for translation, just google Corendon xd

How do people in relationships make friends when you choose to be child free? Every other couple we know is having kids and I don’t care to come over to hang out when your kids are running around screaming. Getting lonely in our 30s