At least some openingly admit they're jealous of us

From Regretful Parents:

Why couldn't the "childless movement" have happened 15 years ago??

I see all these reels/tik toks/posts about women that are childless and living their best life. I felt pressured into a kid because that's what everyone was telling me came after graduation/marriage.

I wish this movement would've been strong back then. Normalize being childless unless you absolutely want them. These women are showing you what life is like without kids, and it's GLORIOUS. Society made it seem like you would be miserable and missing out and an outcast if you didn't have a child.

Anyways, I watch those videos with such jealousy I can feel it in my bones
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You can read the comments here, that agree w/ her.

https://www.reddit.com/r/regretfulparents/comments/1uwi9ae/why_couldnt_the_childless_movement_have_happened/

Hey, guys we were always here on the Bratz Board!!!!! Ya shoulda joined us when you could. In fact the movement was around, and people made fun of us for "needing a movement", for "needing a label" bcz they think being CF is just 'not having kids, what do they need support from?" "why is everyone a victim?" Well, a-holes, decades of the same insults and badgering, we needed an outlet, and recognition that it was a real legit thought-process and way of life, identify away from the sheep who just thought, hey they are some kinda oddballs, um, noooo, Breeding sucks, we realize it, and youre still fooling yourselves, or maybe you really like it but it is ok for people to live differently, and make their own choices.

Uhhh I signed up here in 2006, childfreedom has been a thing for more than 15 years. The CF movement may not have been going strong at the time, but it was certainly there. Funny enough, I learned about childfreedom when someone on an abortion debate website told me that my feelings had a name (while everyone else just said I was mentally ill). And I remember this clearly - I shit you not, the username of the member who told me what childfreedom was was "Moo."

We needed groups for the same reason LGBTQ folks need groups: to find like-minded people who can support one another in a world where they are treated differently and often badly for not conforming to the norm. Only thing is you can't really control your sexuality, though I'm not sure if childfreedom is more of a choice or simply a compulsion to not have kids. I didn't choose to be CF - that's just who I am. And much like with LGBTQ folks, I think there has been more acceptance of CFers, but I don't think it will ever be fully embraced as "acceptable" overall.

But still, I wish childfreedom had caught on as more mainstream much, much sooner. A lot of people could have avoided becoming miserable parents, and a lot of children could have avoided being mentally fucked up by their parents and not wound up becoming adults who need therapy. I do think the internet has played a HUGE role in the spread of CFdom and the slight nudge toward being more normal, and of course the internet was pretty primitive in the 90s and non-existent even earlier.

Also, we can thank the internet for giving us insight into how awful parenting is too. Not only the regretful parents sub, but pretty much any parenting site is full of parents anonymously complaining about everything relating to children, ranging from normal things to completely fucked-up shit. There is absolutely no excuse now for people to enter parenthood not knowing what to expect.

I never heard of CF before, but even in the early 70s I did hear of "Childless by Choice" and it branded on my brain as a child myself.

Once I had access to the 'net in the 90s, it was basically the first thing I ever searched in the browser. Came up w/ No Kidding!, Yahoo Childfree groups, and Bratz! page and the other original CF groups. Once I said the word CF to a pal at Grad School in 2000, and they looked at me like I was nuts (she is/was perpetually single therefore no kids, but one of those aunts that had like 10 niblings and instead of being bored alone at home, made them her life) all the while my fellow co-students were mulling over having kids bcz they were all in their very late 20s and early 30s and married, but I wish I coulda recorded them and played it back for them, bcz even tho they were all planning these pregnancies, they all said stuff like 'I feel I could wait and put it off forever'. Um, hate to tell you, you do not want kids and are just doing it bcz it is expected outta you and your marriage. And, they did get preggers, and kinda fucked up their first years of their first jobs after graduation. I seldom saw them again in the community, and they seemed to learn things a lot slower than I did becz I came to work every day and every month, they were at home w/ children, not getting the experience they needed. Then, we get to wonder why women make less money and dont move up the corporate ladder.

Sorry for the poor grammar in the title. Typing too fast.