Penticton Herald

Gen Z, millennial­s speak out on reluctance to become parents

- By LEANNE ITALIE

NEW YORK — At 24, El Johnson has made up her mind that she won’t bear children, though she and her girlfriend haven’t ruled out adoption.

The graduate student who works in legal services in Austin, Texas, has a list of reasons for not wanting to give birth: the climate crisis and a genetic health condition among them.

“I don’t think it’s responsibl­e to bring children into this world,” Johnson said. “There are already kids who need homes. I don’t know what kind of world it’s going to be in 20, 30, 40 years.”

She’s so sure, in fact, that she’ll soon have her tubes removed. It’s a precaution­ary decision sealed by the fall of Roe v. Wade and by tight restrictio­ns on abortion services in her state and around the country.

Other women interviewe­d also cited climate change, along with overwhelmi­ng student debt coupled with inflation, as reasons they’ll never be parents. Some younger men, too, are opting out and more are seeking vasectomie­s.

Whatever the motivation, they play a role in dramatical­ly low birth rates in the U.S.

The U.S. birth rate fell 4% in 2020, the largest single-year decrease in nearly 50 years, according to a government report. The government noted a 1% uptick in U.S. births last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the coronaviru­s pandemic: about 86,000 fewer than in 2019.

Walter and Kyah King live in suburban Las Vegas. Walter, 29, a sports data scientist, and Kyah, 28, a college career counselor, have been together nearly 10 years, the last four as a married couple. The realizatio­n that they didn’t want to have kids came on slowly for both of them.

“It was in our early 20s when the switch sort of flipped,” Kyah said. “We had moved to California and we were really just starting our adult lives. I think we talked about having three kids at one point. But just with the economy and the state of the world and just thinking about the logistics of bringing children into the world. That’s really when we started to have our doubts.”

Finances are top of mind. Before taxes, the two earn about $160,000 combined, with about $120,000 in student loan debt for Kyah and about $5,000 left for Walter. The couple said they wouldn’t be able to buy a house and shoulder the costs of even one child without major sacrifices they’re not willing to make.

But for Kyah, the decision goes well beyond money.

“I think we would be great parents, but the thought of going into our health system to give birth is really scary. Black women, black mothers, are not valued in the same way that white mothers are,” said Kyah, who is Black.

When Kyah’s IUD expires, Walter said he’ll consider a vasectomy, a procedure that went on the rise among men under 30 during the pandemic.

Jordan Davidson interviewe­d more than 300 people for a book out in December titled, “So When are You Having Kids?” The pandemic, she said, led many to delay childbirth among those contemplat­ing children at all.

“These timelines that people created for themselves of, I want to accomplish X by three years from now, changed. People weren’t necessaril­y willing to move the goalposts and say, OK, I’m going to forgo these accomplish­ments and do this differentl­y,” she said. “People still want to travel. They still want to go to graduate school. They still want to meet certain financial benchmarks.”

Fears about climate change have cemented the idea of living without children for many, Davidson said.

“Now with increased wildfires, droughts, heat waves, all of a sudden it is becoming real that, OK, this is happening during my time, and what is this going to look like during the time that my children are alive?” she said.

In New York City, 23-year-old Emily Shapiro, a copywriter for a pharmaceut­ical ad agency, earns $60,000 a year, lives at home as she saves money and has never wanted children.

“They’re sticky. I could never imagine picking up a kid that’s covered in ice cream. I’m a bit of a germaphobe. I don’t want to change a diaper. If I did have one, I wouldn’t want them until they’re in, like, sixth grade. I also think the physical Earth isn’t doing so

great so it would be unfair,” she said.

Among those Jordan interviewe­d, concerns over the environmen­t were far more prevalent among the younger group. Questions of affordabil­ity, she said, troubled both millennial­s and members of Gen Z.

“There is a lot of fear around having children who would be worse off than they viewed themselves during their childhoods,” Davidson said.

Dannie Lynn Murphy, who helps find software engineers for Google, said she was nearly 17 when she was removed from her home by child protective services due to a pattern of child abuse. Her wife, she said, was similarly raised in a “not great” environmen­t.

“Both of us at one point would have said yes to kids,” she said. “In my late teenage, early adult years, I saw and understood the appeal and was attracted to the idea of getting to raise someone differentl­y than I was raised. But the practical realities of a child kind of suck.”

Murphy earns about $103,000 a year, with bonuses and equity that can drive that amount up to $300,000. Her wife earns about $60,000 as an attorney. They don’t own their Seattle home.

“I can’t see myself committing to a mortgage, let alone a child,” the 28-year-old Murphy said. “I think the primary reason is financial. I would prefer to spend that money on traveling versus sinking a half a million dollars into raising a child. Secondaril­y, there’s now the fear of behaving with our children the way our parents behaved with us.”

 ?? The Associated Press ?? This recent photo shows El Johnson, right, with her girlfriend, Sara Goodie, in Austin, Texas. Johnson has decided not to bear children, though she hasn’t ruled out adoption.
The Associated Press This recent photo shows El Johnson, right, with her girlfriend, Sara Goodie, in Austin, Texas. Johnson has decided not to bear children, though she hasn’t ruled out adoption.

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