BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids CF Because of the World's Problems

Are any of you CF because you think there are too many problems in the world and the society we live in? If so, what do you think are the biggest problems that make you feel a child should not be brought into this world? I just thought I'd see who identifies this as one of the reasons for being CF. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A large part of my choice to be childfree does have a lot to do with the state of the world today. Everywhere you turn there is something bad happening on the news, death, destruction, war and so on. The first time in my life I decided children were not for me was after I was sexually assaulted at the age of thirteen. The day prior to my rape I was a carefree child who enjoyed life and was truely innocent, the day after I suddenly had the full reality of how cruel the world is and realized that I had to grow up and educate myself on the world. Seeing the anguish my parents went through in the day following my assault was really terrible, almost worse than the attack itself. My father was devastated that he could not protect me and he has never been the same ever since that day. I could not imagine being forced to live with guilt for something I had no control over for the rest of my life like he does.

Also hearing stories from my husband about what he saw and experience while stationed in Iraq and various other countries has really had an impact on me. Hearing about the conditions that so many people in the world live in breaks my heart and makes me realize just how well I really do have it. I feel like I must do something to help people and plan to go into a career field where I can do just that. If I had children I do not believe I would ever able to "give back" to the world.

There are really too many problems in this world and in my country for me to really write about each and every individual thing, but I know that there are many times I find myself watching the news or reading a paper and am just paralyzed with fear inside. Times when I wonder if I could be around to see a huge nuclear war or other massive crisis in my own life. If my fear about such things is *that* intense why on earth would I bring a child into the world to experience this same fear and possibly even witness and experience worse things than myself. One does not do such things to someone they truely love.

First off, I'm sorry to hear about what happened when you were thirteen. Anytime I hear about an innocent girl or woman get treated that way, it makes me angry that there are men like this in the world, and lots of them.

In fact, I saw a movie today called North Country, which stars Charlize Theron in a drama about a real-life sexual harassment lawsuit. There was a rape scene in it. Though not extremely explicit, it was enough to break one's heart.

I'm also sick of the media giving wrong messages to young people, how teenagers are the most volatile people on this planet, how schools are really failing, how we have so many poor people in this country, the right-wingers running this country, and many other things. Better to be an adult trying to survive and enjoying what's still there than bring a kid to see this and try to explain it later.

I've known since childhood that I wanted to be childfree - I never liked kids even AS a kid. My reasons up until a few years ago did not involve the world's problems but the more I see of the goings-on in this world, that is just another reason I add to my list of many. My main reason for not ever wanting kids is the loss of freedom. Kids are needy, difficult, expensive and require 100% of your time, energy, resources and income. People ask me, "Oh, did you have a bad childhood?" Actually, I had a GREAT childhood. If more parents were like my parents, we'd be calling less parents BREEDERS! LOL

I have many reasons for not having a child. A few are

-the environment, too much trash, too much distruction of the land, too many houses too many cars
-the population, too many people already, why add more?
-the government, why would I bring a liberal leftist child into this? To have their rights/freedoms taken away, to not be able to celebrate Halloween in the classroom, to not be able to go outside and play without me being out there, to have "play dates" instead of picking friends and just hanging out. Family values and no child lieft behind are hurting mroe then they are helping.
- the world, wow there is just too much here to list everything. From disease to poverty to welfare of those who are already here.


These are just a few there are many more reasons.

In part, the state of the world is why I am cf. First, I find the divorce rate of 50% unacceptably high to bring a child into the mix. I absolutely do not want to be a single parent--doing that job with 2 people looks difficult enough. In addition, I think my generation is going to be lucky if we can take care of ourselves in old age and we need to be saving and planning because in all likelyhood we will have no social security or company pensions. If we can't save it now, we won't have it.

I grew up in an area where double incomes are a necessity. I find this a major problem. In my younger years, I knew if I had a baby, I would be a single parent and/or have to send my kid to daycare as an infant. The impact of this was way too much for me. I still don't understand how parents can drop off their infants at 6 am, work all day, and then pick them up after 9 hours. So glad I am childfree and will never have to deal with this issue.

Call me old-fashioned, but I have a lot of respect for parents who decide on a small family with one stay-at-home parent and pick their location based on good schools and safe neighborhoods. There is too much [censored] going on in bad neighborhoods and poor school districts.

If you're paying attention to the news, there's news of rioting in France. It has to do with the accidental deaths of two teenagers, both of African descent. So you can imagine how a lot of people there might feel.

Reminds me a lot of the Los Angeles riots in 1992, because I lived in Southern California at the time. I was a kid at the time, and just seeing the images on TV was one of the first signs that the world we live in is not heaven, but hell.

I agree with everything you said.

I am really terrified about crazed the United States is becoming over religion and so-called "religious freedom". From pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control based on "personal beliefs", abstinence only sexual education in schools, the creationalism vs. evoluton debate and everything else going on right now I really wonder if the U.S. is on the brink of some terrible happenings. Awhile ago I read an article about a Holocaust survivor who was leaving the United States as he was seeing the beginning days of the Holocaust mirrored in society here. Even the ridiculous fascination with being "politically correct" is causing a lot of harm in the United States. Sometimes it seems that there is a lot of "us vs. them" mentatlity here due to defining differences through religious freedom and pc-ness.

The riots in France right now are very upsetting along with many other world events. The world is a very cruel place, both the large picture and the small picture as well.

Someone I talked to recently said that she thinks we might have another revolution, like the Revolutionary War that led to the Declaration of Independence.