voluntary childlessness
Sign in to saveAlso known as childfree
lifelong voluntary choice to not have children; includes avoiding having biological, step, or adopted children
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Classification of parents and non-parents on their attitudes and circumstances pertaining to having children
Voluntary childlessness or childfreeness is the active choice to neither conceive nor adopt children. Use of the word childfree was first recorded in 1901 and entered common usage among second-wave feminists during the 1970s. The suffix -free refers to the freedom and personal choice of those to pick this lifestyle. The meaning of the term childfree extends to encompass the children of others, in addition to one's own children. This distinguishes it further from the more usual term childless, which is traditionally used to express the idea of having no children, whether by choice or by circumstance.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “voluntary childlessness” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.