Since I was quite young, perhaps something like 12 years old, I have known I do not want children. Recently I started thinking more deeply about this conviction and the reasons for it. I came up with these main rationales for remaining child free through my life: 1. I am determined to achieve worthwhile things during my lifetime independent of my relationships with others (in the realms of creativity and career). I feel that having children, whilst not precluding that possibility entirely, definitely makes it less likely that I will achieve my aims. 2. I believe having children is selfish. We humans are causing a devastating effect on our environment, and creating more humans will only exacerbate that. Children consume huge amounts of resources and contribute very little to society for a long time, at least 18 years. That's 18 years of consuming resources like a black hole. We also have a huge overpopulation problem which contributes to the environmental woes we face, as well as social justice and issues and a myriad of other troubles.

1. We are societally conditioned to value parenthood above other things, a hangover from times when it was harder to raise living children and keep them alive, and it was imperative to keep the population up in your village / town or you all might die out from polio. Why is the family unit actually valued? I find people's unwillingness to question these basic assumptions and just follow expectations fairly disturbing.

As a humanist, I think the best thing we can do for each other as a species is focus on creating value and solving problems within our own lifetimes, rather than investing hope in our spawn, who then go on to invest all their hopes and dreams in their spawn, ad infinitum.

In my ideal world, we would all use the time, energy and money that we would pour into having into having children to achieve something in our lifetimes instead of deferring it onto the next generation.

There are a couple of books on the child free movement that are worth checking out if you're interested.

The Baby Matrix http://www.amazon.com/The-Baby-Matrix-Parenthood-Reproduction/dp/0615642993

Two is Enough http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580052630/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687462&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1608320731&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=05E1NHYE195NB6DNF1PQ

And whilst I have yet to check it out properly, apparently /r/childfree is a great place to hang out and learn more.