Posted October 30
An article from The Press1 on these young people nowadays who prefer not to have children and who opt for sterilization has been running through my head since the summer. I always knew I wanted children and I never really wondered what my life would be like without them.
I just know that I would have a lot more time to devote to my international career. I would probably be on all the platforms spreading opinions that I didn’t know I had, or else, ambitious as I am, I might be an influencer of metropolitan renown.
Above all, I know that I would be a little bored. I never feel more alive than when I’m yelling at my kids to shut up their PlayStation tabernacle because supper is ready. What would I do with all this free time? I would definitely fill that void by compulsively buying useless items. A sous vide cooker, a air fryer or an avocado utensil (oh no, it’s true, I already have all that). Rather than reading a good book in a freezing arena on a Saturday morning at 8 a.m., I would read a good book in a hot tub surrounded by Gwyneth Paltrow-scented candles. What a difference ?
Having children has made me a better man. So much better that I am now able to understand very well that for some, it is the fact of not having had children that has made them better.
Whether for very personal reasons or because we are worried about the fate of the planet, there are no bad reasons not to want children. In France, we even speak of a “Big Quit” generation (obviously) to evoke these young people who no longer vote, no longer follow the news, no longer get involved in work, and avoid having children.2.
The use of vasectomy is on the rise in the United States, according to reports from the New York Times3 after talking to several urologists who are more scissoring than before. It is too early to say if the recent decisions of the Supreme Court in the area of abortion have something to do with it, but we are still talking here about the not very bright future of the planet. Or too radiant in this case. In 2020, American polls estimated that 40% of millennials considered it too expensive to have children, in addition to noting that eco-anxiety motivated choices in this direction. It has even become a trend on TikTok to stage his vasectomy. Some pessimists garner millions of views by making a show of mourning their virility.
Proponents of degrowth will perhaps see this phenomenon in a favorable light. If we don’t bring someone into the world, we won’t have to listen to them agonize under a scorching sun, a more disillusioned version of Harmonium could have sung.
These resigned from society could perhaps find hope if they had children. Guillaume Beauregard of Vulgaires Machins, recently interviewed in these pages, said that “nihilism is a good way to avoid going crazy, but it becomes impossible when you have children”. We have no choice but to believe in the future when the future lives under our roof.
On the sidelines of this relative optimism, the irreversible side of sterilization in the prime of life tickles some people. It’s a bit like getting a chinese sign that-you-don’t-know-what-it-means tattooed on your forehead at 18. The chances of regretting it later are high. It seems to me that if I myself had decided not to have children, I would have opted for something that does not cut off access to my gametes permanently.
Yet, according to a Michigan State University study4 (which I read in a cold arena at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning), adults who decided not to have children as teenagers rarely changed their minds in their lifetime. They are now nulliparous quarantine (very proud to have managed to insert this word) and happy.
I wrote “adolescents” because it is almost exclusively womb owners who suffer discrimination in their choices of non-parenting. There is the pressure of our own parents who dream of becoming grandmothers and grandfathers, an ideal role since we can benefit from the love of our very cute toddlers and pretend that we have something on fire to leave the premises when a diaper needs to be changed.
There are also the doctors who receive requests for a hysterectomy and who consider it justified to convince women not to undergo the major operation. It is relatively easy for a man to undergo a vasectomy, but the equivalent for women is disputed. Obviously, the operation is more cumbersome and costly and one wonders if it is really up to the government to pay for that. As I said, I failed to develop this ability to have an opinion on everything. I’ll leave it to the basement tax experts to decide on that.
As I have always known that I wanted children and that I was never told not to have them, I think that those who have always been certain that they would not want them should also be taken seriously. serious. I am a body libertarian (not the same as libertine, by the way). Abortion, tubal ligation, tattoo on the edge of the bottom, you do what you want. We will find other ways to save humanity.