13 Real Stories Exploring Whether Childfree People Regret Their Choice

Growing up, I always dreamed of getting married and having kids like everybody else. Despite living in a country where nobody had white picket fences, I yearned for that life too, along with a bunch of pets. After turning into a sullen teen, though, I started questioning the dreams I’d taken for granted and realized I didn’t want kids at all, and that my vision for life looked very different from what I’d imagined.

The only problem was that I had never really heard of anyone being childfree by choice, even though current data says that they make up 23% of the global population. It had also been drilled into my head that folks who didn’t want kids always loved being parents the moment they had one of their own, which made it even harder to consider this a valid path.

To this day, childfree people are viewed with a mix of suspicion for their “selfish” lifestyles and pity for apparently not having anybody to take care of them in their old age. This negative bias runs so deep that everyone with kids truly believes that this choice comes with a lot of regret.

Although it can be hard to prove whether it’s true or false, we at Bored Panda interviewed 11 childfree people of different ages and genders, plus 2 experts in the field, to get detailed personal insight into this choice. I hope more than anyone that kid-free folks are truly happy with their decision, but after reading this article, you can decide for yourself whether that’s a reality.