Child-Free But Undecided: What It's Like To Live With 'Parental FOMO'

There’s a lot of societal pressure to have children, but many people struggle with whether it’s right for them.In the last few years, we’ve heard a lot about people choosing to be child-free, but there’s another conversation worth having: many people – especially women in childbearing years – are child-free but worried about parental FOMO, or fear of missing out.What if one day there’s regret about the decision to not have kids?Financial worries only compound that anxiety.Many millennials and Gen Zers say they are forgoing parenthood at least in part because they can’t afford to have kids. Pressure from others makes it worse, too. Commentary from the pro-parental camp includes everything from “you might regret it someday” and “who’s going to take care of you when you’re older?” to “you’ve never known true/real love until you’ve had a child”.In the aggregate, statements like those cause many younger people to question their own desires, even when they feel firm in their decisions, said