6 Things You Should Never Say To Someone Without Kids (But People Do Anyway)
HuffPost
These common questions and comments may seem innocent, but can actually do a lot of harm.
People who don’t have children make up a sizable share of the population. Yet the stigma about not being a parent persists in our culture — particularly for women. Those without kids are often unfairly thought of as selfish, unfulfilled or unusual.
A 2022 survey of Michigan adults found that more than 20% were child-free, meaning they did not want kids, while 5% were childless, meaning they wanted kids but were unable to have them. About 10% said they were undecided, roughly the same number said they want kids in the future, and just over 3% said they were ambivalent. (Although many people self-identify as “child-free” or “childless,” others dislike using these terms because of the suggestion that having children is “the default, when it shouldn’t be,” as columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett wrote for The Guardian last year. “Why define by deficit?”)