I Strongly Object to the Term “Childfree”

It’s the wrong adjective for the right movement

Photo 154957271 © motortion | Dreamstime.com

There’s a bit of a barrage of articles on my social media feed about the childfree movement.

How it is now time for people to make a choice of putting their own life and happiness ahead of the societal obligation of having kids. This is especially true for women since the implications and enormity of the event of childbirth for a woman are far more significant than for a man.

I am a parent of one, and hopefully, a second child at some point and while both my wife and I made this conscious choice, I absolutely see why parenting or children are not for everyone.

It’s a choice that does in many ways mean a lot of sacrifices and pivoting your life to being centered around the child than yourself.

And for that very reason — it is a choice YOU make. It isn’t the child that forces their entry into this world, it is something you do — (hopefully) voluntarily, apart from cases where it is accidental, or forced as a result of an abusive partnership, or actual crime (reported or unreported ones at that).

Hence, you can’t really be complaining about what it comes with — you should have done your homework before diving into something so drastic, and literally life-changing.

For that very reason, anyone that’s not you or your partner should keep out of the business of suggesting you should or shouldn’t have a child.

The stigma associated with voluntarily choosing not to have children in most societies of the world — even the most modern — had to be addressed and dealt with. And that’s exactly what the world is doing today — and coming out vocally in support of the choice of not having children.

However, there is one problem — and a big one at that, at least in my mind.

The terminology that has been chosen and widely accepted for this movement is the word — “childfree.”

Childfree was carefully chosen to define the choice of not having children, voluntarily, vs. childless which often implies the inability to have children for various reasons.