“What Are Children For?” Why Millennials and Gen-Zers Aren’t Having Kids | Amanpour and Company

Voters — especially women voters — are saying reproductive rights are central to their voting decisions in the upcoming U.S. election. While Vice President Kamala Harris has earned voter support on the abortion issue, former President Donald Trump has been shifting his stance on the matter — while failing to offer specifics on how he would make childcare more affordable. In a new book, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman are exploring how public perceptions of parenthood are shaped by political rhetoric about reproductive rights. They join Michel Martin to discuss it all.

Originally aired on September 6, 2024

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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[laurah.]

I am a Mom. America doesn't have an infrastructure than protects and empowers children and parents.

[serraangel]

Lots of us were victims of child abuse and do not have the money for therapy and would rather not hurt a child.

[attitudeproblem]

If Millennials and Gen Z aren’t having kids b/c we’re “selfish and immature”, then we’re still doing better than those before us. Being selfish and immature never stopped _them._ 😒😒😒

[daveed]

I’m glad people are standing up to the pressure to reproduce, and empowering themselves to decide what’s right for them and the life they want.

[FionaEm]

I'm a childless Gen Xer. I always thought I'd have kids, but I never found anyone suitable to have them with, so it just didn't happen. Sometimes things happen by default rather than by active choice. I get tired of this reality check being left out of discussions like these.

[PatsyC]

There is nothing wrong with not wanting children, based on my experience, I encourage my grandchildren to enjoy their independence, their self fulfillment before ever thinking about being tied down by a child, they may or may not want. I raised my children but I didn’t find fulfillment in it, only responsibilities, two steps away from abject poverty, the eternal fear that you will fail them, we end up homeless, and worse I was afraid to ruin their lives as my mother said, I had ruined mine.
Being a parent isn’t a bowl of cherries, you got to have a lot of self control to get them pass the age of five and if you don’t have the resources you run the risk of ruining your children’s lives. I don’t blame them for not wanting children, they’ve seen us as parents.

[LevityBrevity]

Make the world safer for women and children then maybe people will want to have children.

[billybobfreestyle]

My top reasons (in order) for not having children:
1) school shootings - what a tragic and avoidable reason to have to bury your child.
2) workers’ protections - until I have some guarantee that I’m not just meeting some body-count quota for the corporate elites and that my children can become successful and live a comfortable life after they survive and graduate high school, I’m not giving birth to a single child.
3) I can barely afford myself- I’m supposed to have a house by now, be part of a community, and have some plan and savings for retirement. I went to college and am still paying off my debt for that. I have a career in the financial sector that pays competitively, but I still can’t buy a house. If I had children, I’d also have to find a way to feed them, clothe them, give them the little extras that make them equal to their peers, and send them to college. There’s no friggen way I can afford that even with both mine and my partner’s salaries.
4) having a daughter in this America would be terrifying- would her rights be as protected as a son’s rights? I doubt it and that terrifies me.
5) my safety- being pregnant is dangerous these days because life saving medical care sometimes includes medication that is used in abortion. I don’t want to die giving birth to a child that won’t be protected at their schools, by my government, or by the society that values a fetus over a child that is already walking through school hallways and the mother who brought them there.

I’m not selfish. I’m just so sure that having children would be a bad idea for the children. I feel like this is all very obvious and to act like we’re confused why people aren’t having kids is gaslighting at its best.

[lalayastill]

it's not that i don't like children, it's that i've seen all my childhood women's lives being sent spiraling into abject poverty, desperation and inescapable depression and anxiety, from ending up having to raise the child alone, due to their spouses dying, either from accidents, or due to heart problems once they pass 40 (some of these men were also abusive.. at the time women weren't referred to as people, in my country, that's how deeply ingrained misogyny was, and abusive behavior from men was seen as normal). I grew up partaking in that joyless environment and it made me focus my life around avoiding having to ever go through that type of life again. Sometimes I remember my childhood poverty and cry, for simple things, like being able to afford food. I also personally live in a way less predictable times than my mother, so for me, it could go even worse. I've studied for years and years and worked very hard to build a good career for myself and to get myself out of the gutter, and i'm not going back, especially not for a kid who could very well happen to have a neurologically dictated psychological problem, like psychopathy, which absolutely can happen. A child is a Russian roulette, and your previous life experiences dictate how you view the risks and the benefits

[Katiemadonna]

Life itself feels a scam and is too expensive. Everyone is done.

[angelinahunter]

After WWII my Catholic unstable mother had two children that she didn't want and hardly took care of because the church told her that birth control was a mortal sin. When I was 9 she had another baby and gave it to me to raise. Then when I was 11 she had yet another baby and pushed me to raise that baby too. And then she had a nervous breakdown so that by 12 I was taking care of a 3-year old, a 1-year old and HER. My mother was so unstable that had she had the choice NOT to have children she may not have dropped off the deep end. She was violent and I'd come home to find that she'd broken everything in the living room. All four of my mother's children never had children of their own -- and never having had a childhood of my own till I left home at 20 I have never regretted that decision.

[dougn]

Single mans health insurance costs $70 per paycheck.
Family plan costs $600 per paycheck.

[jbundles]

I’m an 80s kid and I don’t want kids. I don’t care about anyone’s opinion!!

[sestenwhen]

From a Gen X'er who never had or wanted children. Your views on not having children need to change rather than our views. You ask "What is the solution?" As if we need one. I have had 2 parents confess to me they regret having children. It's a huge commitment with very little upside. Plus the world is way overpopulated. The powers that run the world want us to breed because they view children as new customers. As a global community we need to cut our population. That aside. At my ripe old age my wife and I view not having kids the best decision we ever made.

[robertkimber]

In my parents' generation, the question wasn't if they had children, they just did. And that is what Republicans want to see a return to now. At the same time, they want to make the reality of parenthood as harsh as possible. Liberals see it as a matter of choice and want to work to make it happen. I did not hear a persuasive argument from these two authors for actually having kids, and that is the real problem.

[Eric-Marsh]

I'm 70. As a teenager I concluded that we are creating worse world for future generations and that the most moral thing I could do is not have any kids of my own. I stuck to that and have had no regrets.

[Starfish]

I don’t blame the younger generations for not wanting to have kids. Look at the state of the world? Look at the cost of living?

[catc]

It’s not procrastination, it’s being born into a generation that will never be able to buy a house!

[ursulaschneider]

I find it very odd that no mention is made of the fact that younger people of childbearing age are the first generation to have such a strong knowledge of how mental health affects children. This seems to me like a huge factor. Many of that generation are actively pursuing healing from the damage done them by unaware or willfully ignorant parents, grandparents, teachers, church leaders, etc and the idea of trying to parent when one's own mental health is problematic is a huge risk for the well being of future generations.

[SJR-ox]

Yeah it couldn’t possibly be that millions of us grew up with parents who frequently displayed their resentment towards us. We absorbed the reality that parenthood is a pretty miserable exhausting job very early. We’re not falling for the romantic idea that parenthood is wonderful. In my opinion freedom is much more of a factor than money for younger generations not having children.