New Trend: Men Wanting Babies, Women Wanting Freedom
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It was bound to happen: One day, women would awake from the fog of cultural myth-making to realize that having kids is in fact a lot of work, work that was bound to fall disproportionately on them—maybe even too much work, all said, if you want to get other stuff done or have a low-key existence. And they would decide to wait. Maybe forever. That time has come.
The idea that #notallwomen want kids is, of course, not news. It’s out there. It’s a popular essay topic, a subject of much study and debate, and a known quantity at this point, thanks to the tireless efforts of articulate women everywhere to give visibility to this totally understandable position. Just as some women simply know their whole lives that they want to be mothers one day, others know with just as much certainty that it’s not for them. Being among the latter is beyond annoying, because you are peppered with well-meaning doubt-mongering for much of your life: You never know, they say, you might change your mind. Or, You’ll see, it’ll happen to you one day.
But a harder to articulate messy middle exists here, too, ladies for whom those nagging doubts are, in fact, reality: The women who simply don’t know if they want kids or not. Who might change their minds. Who really aren’t sure. They can make it perplexing for everyone, because there is no certainty—or at least, none that lasts for very long. Pregnancy ambivalence is real.
Such types are the subject of a New York piece about the increasing number of women who, for a variety of reasons, are uncertain about procreating and could see it going both ways. What is interesting about these women is that they are paired with men who are totally sure they do want kids, and the issue challenges the stability of their unions. Bryce R. Covert explores the relationship between Lauren Rankin and her boyfriend, Jason. They’ve been together for five happy years, aside from the looming deadline to procreate or bust. Covert writes:
Conventional wisdom would cast this as a baby-hungry woman up against a skittish man, but Lauren’s predicament is exactly the opposite.
“We’ve both known from the beginning of our relationship that he’s always wanted kids, always wanted a family, and I’ve always been ambivalent as hell about it,” she said. She’s wary of the responsibility and commitment of having a child. But life events have forced the issue. She’s 29 and he’s 34, and he wants to have children before he gets to 40. More pressing is that Asbury Park — a four-hour round trip every day. Jason is willing to move somewhere more convenient, but only if they can agree that children are in the future. “That’s the ultimatum,” she said.
Covert writes about the increasing number of women who aren’t sure or don’t want kids these days as compared to men:
In a nationally representative survey of single, childless people in 2011, more men than women said they wanted kids. (On the other hand, more women reported seeking independence in their relationships, personal space, interests, and hobbies.) A different poll from 2013 echoed those findings, with more than 80 percent of men saying they’d always wanted to be a father or at least thought they would be someday. Just 70 percent of women felt the same.
She credits a number of factors in this shift, such as greater reproductive control and changing attitudes, but the more intriguing factor is the simple acknowledgement by more and more women that having kids is going to fall more on them, even when men say they will totally pull their weight:
The majority of today’s young people of both genders seek an egalitarian split in work and family responsibilities. But even if both partners want it, women are aware that they probably won’t get it. Achieving equality in the home is easier said than done: In a 2011 survey of fathers, 65 percent said they believed both parents should spend an equal amount of time on child-rearing. But when asked about their realities, 64 percent said their wives provided more care. “I think before you have kids it’s a lot easier for men to imagine combining work and family,” [sociologist Stephanie] Coontz said. “There’s work involved with having kids that women can anticipate better than men. We saw our moms do it.”
And I should add that we saw our moms do it, but we also see other women do it every single day, and know intimately of their complaints.