“You’ll Die Alone!”: Myths and Realities of How the Childfree Age

• In Event: 3260 - Emergent Perspectives on Age and Aging

Abstract

Ask any childfree person what responses they hear when they share the news that they are not planning to have kids and chances are you’ll hear some variation of the worry that non-parents are doomed not only to a fate of death on their own but that they’ll be sad, lonely, and bitter when they go. Yet such proclamations, though usually well-intentioned, do not match the reality of most childfree people’s lives. Analyzing data from interviews with 50 women and 20 men who have made the intentional choice not to become parents themselves, and placing the data within the context of the extant literature on the childfree choice, I explore cultural perceptions of older childfree people and consider the reality of how childfree adults actually fare as they age. Findings reveal that the childfree leave legacies that matter and carve out unique and inspiring ways of aging well.

Author

• Amy Blackstone, University of Maine