Lifestyles of the rich and childfree (news roundup)

Eccentric, childfree Chinese billionaire Nina Wang has left her entire $4.2 billion (USD) fortune to a feng shui master, but her sisters are suing. While few of us have that much dough to give away when we die, Wang's case does illustrate the the fact that the childfree often face a more complicated legal situation when it comes to divvying up the estate.

Though I find this snippet of the article most interesting:

Despite her enormous wealth, Wang, who wore pigtails and mini skirts well into her 60s, was notoriously frugal and once claimed she needed only around 400 US dollars a month to live.

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Women struggling to decide whether to have a child or not can now seek the advice of a "baby coach," like Beth Follini, who is profiled in The Times:

Beth Follini, who was a manager and mentor in the voluntary sector before training with the UK Coaches Training Institute, set up her business, www.ticktockcoaching.co.uk, a year ago. She soon realised that she’d hit a nerve with many modern women, for whom starting a family is anything but straightforward. The result of this agonising is that unprecedented numbers of women are not having children. According to the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, one woman in five now remains childless, with nearly one in three degree-educated woman never becoming a mother.

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She also helps the decidedly childfree deal with some of the societal pressure:

In the case of a client who enjoys being child-free but would like to have children in her life, Follini might explore options such as mentoring children. “I have sometimes discovered that a woman who says she is undecided actually doesn’t want children, but is worried about how she will be perceived. A man of 47 with no children is often admired, but a woman may well be pitied or thought of as hard and unfulfilled.”

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Is not having children a more educated choice? The statistics seem to say so, according to this recent article in the U.K. Telegraph:

A third of women graduates will never have children, research has concluded.

The number of highly educated women who are starting families has plummeted in the past decade, according to findings that provide the most detailed insight yet into education and fertility.

While some women are making a conscious decision not to have children, others are simply leaving it too late after taking years to build their careers, buy a home and find the right partner.

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In New Zealand, childfree families may soon overtake the traditional nuclear model, according to the New Zealand Herald:

Statistics New Zealand chief demographer Mansoor Khawaja said latest projections put childless couples as the most common family type in five to 10 years.

One reason is a growing trend for women to never have children. The census showed that 461,217, or 28 per cent of women had no children.

As well as being foiled by infertility, couples are making a conscious choice to not become parents. Auckland celebrant Kerry-Ann Stanton said, "Some couples are very clear children don't figure in the future."

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Save the Planet One Condom at a Time

With Earth Day right around the corner, I thought some of you would enjoy this feature on childfree couples and individuals who decided not to procreate largely for environmental reasons.

Seeing population at the core of environmental issues, Kaufman decided 10 years ago to forgo having children.

“We can put up all the windmills we want,” he says. “If we can’t stop reproducing at 70 million a year, nothing’s going to prevent us from overwhelming the planet.”

The current global population is just over 6.5 billion. The U.N. Population Division expects the number of people to grow to 9 billion by 2050.

Of course, there are many reasons for not having kids. But if you do make the choice, you can always feel good knowing that your lifestyle is earth-friendly.
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