Is your company too family-friendly?

The childfree are fighting back against family-friendly policies that wind up discriminating against those without offspring. This, according to a cover story in HR Magazine

"Childless singles feel put upon, taken for granted and exploited — whether because of fewer benefits, less compensation, longer hours, mandatory overtime or less flexible schedules or leaves — by married and child-rearing co-workers,” Ms. Wells writes.

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And this is interesting: apparently men are more "bothered" by childlessness than women are, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Koropeckyj-Cox speculated that some women may not be choosing motherhood because of the burden of how difficult the dual roles of mom and working women are. "Other studies have documented that men tend to experience pretty strong economic and social rewards from being a dad, whereas women experience more of the pressures and more of the demands of the immediate day-to-day reality of parenting and juggling work."

How about men don't have to get pregnant, give birth, or breastfeed? Having kids seems much nicer if you have none of those responsibilities.

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Here's another reason women may not mind not having kids:

GROWING numbers of childless women are becoming the dominant earner in their relationships as having children remains a serious earnings barrier.

New data from the 2006 census reveals the number of childless couples with a woman earning more than a man has leapt by 40 per cent over the past decade, from 174,910 in 1996 to 243,933 in 2006.

However the trend is reversed when women have children. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the number of couples with children under the age of 15 where the woman was the key breadwinner plunged from 191,095 in 1996 to 176,376 in 2006.

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Lastly, thanks to those of you who have stuck with this blog, even though my posts have been a lot less frequent. I've taken a full-time job and it doesn't leave much room for keeping up with blogs. But I will try to stay on top of it more. Cheers!

No kids? Yes sir!

Although people tend to think of childfree as being urban professionals, the truth is the people who make this choice come from all walks of life -- including, it turns out, military life. A few weeks ago, reporter Jennifer See wrote me asking if she could interview me for a piece about military spouses who are choosing to go without kids. I was more than happy to oblige.

Turns out quite a few military couples are making the choice:

Go on any military instillation, and it seems there are kids everywhere — in the PX and BXs, the commissaries, at unit family functions. Although it seems that most people in the military have families, according to a recent report from the Department of Defense, more than half of all active-duty soldiers — 57 percent to be exact — do not have children.

More and more women instead are focusing on careers, personal interests and their spouses. They are traveling and enjoying the freedom that comes with not having children. So why are they often made to feel like they are doing something wrong?

I hope you'll check out the rest of the piece online.
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