London - It is one of the biggest decisions a couple will make. But many decide not to have children after just one conversation, says a study.
It found that 36 percent had decided not to have children after only discussing it once.
A further five percent had not talked about the issue at all, said the survey of 75 women aged 35 or over who did not want a family.
One woman from the survey said: “Negotiation? It only needed one brief discussion along the lines of ‘I don’t want kids-do you?’ ‘Nope, me neither.’
“Then move onto something more interesting to talk about and neither of us reconsidered our options. There was no need to.”
Another woman said she had “never reached that stage when I thought I must have this conversation”.
Edina Kurdi, a research assistant at Middlesex University, said: “Not having children is obviously a very important decision, and what was interesting from the research was the negligible amount of discussion that couples engaged in - many are agreeing not to have children in one conversation, or in an unspoken way.”
Other respondents from the survey said they had just not really discussed the issue.
“It never really got said,” said one woman. “We had a two-seater car.”
Another respondent said she and her partner had felt pressure from other people but had still never really wanted to have kids.
“We were prompted to discuss based on conversation and pressure from friends and family but neither of us wanted kids.”
One woman said that she would not consider dating anyone who did want children.
“There is no discussion, I don’t want kids and I would never bother to pursue a romantic relationship with someone who did, it would be a pointless endeavour.”
Ms Kurdi added: “One possible reason that couples did not need to talk about the issue much is that they could accurately sense their partner did not want children from their beliefs and lifestyle.
“Very little attention has been paid to the negotiations within romantic relations about not having a family, even though developed countries are facing a general decline in fertility combined with an accelerated rate of childlessness.” - Daily Mail