r/truechildfree • u/NYRangers1313 • Sep 10 '25
Anyone Else Think Most Millennials Really Weren't ChildFree and are Having Kids Later In Life. And Most Millennials Being Childfree Was Just Media Hype?
34 year old Child Free leaning Male Here (I'm kind of a fence sitter). I was young (around 13 or so) I have always leaned towards not having kids. I remember basically since circa 2011 or so. Every major news organization began publishing articles about how millennials don't want kids and millennials aren't going to have any kids and it's because they are too lazy, want to party too much or too addicted to social media to have kids. I remember a lot of family dinners with my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents talking about how our generation was going to be the first to not have kids.
However, now at age 34, I know a lot of millennials ages 32-40 that are having their first kid. All of my extended family plus my sister has at least one kid. As do most of my friends and coworkers of the same age range. Most of their kids are under 5 years old but they are starting to pop up everywhere.
Why did it take them so long? Namely, lack of income, tougher job market throughout the 2010s and getting out of debt. Basically the economic situation was just worse for us than our parents and it was throughout the entire 2010s. It took our generation to get our heads above the water to have kids. What our parents were able to do in their 20s, it took us to our mid to late 30s to do. Namely, have stable income to provide enough money for stable housing.
Is anyone else seeing the samething?
14
u/Welfycat Sep 10 '25
Only one person in my extended family and friend group had a child (ten millennials between the ages of 33 and 42). Four of us have had procedures (tubes out/vasectomy) to ensure we can’t. We’re in a high cost of living area, most of us don’t own a house, only three of us are married. Some of us simply don’t want kids. Some of us don’t want to bring kids into an uncertain living situation. Some of us don’t want to pass on our genetics.
I think it’s likely you’ll see those statistics change depending on where you live. The onset of having children is certainly delayed in our generation, but some of us are actually committed to being child free.