Birth Strike testimony on Parenting

In an NWL study group on Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work, NWL organizers gave testimony on the consciousness-raising questions: (1) What are your reasons for wanting children? For not wanting them? (2) Has your thinking on this changed?

Below is testimony from one NWL organizer. Click on image to watch the video- or read her testimony below:

The reason I don’t want to have another child is because my daughter recently turned 6, and she’s gotten to be pretty independent. The workload for childcare between my husband and I has become more equal. When she was a baby much more of the hours of childcare were on me and less on my work and so it would be very hard for me to give back those gains that I have negotiated with my husband. We’ve worked very very hard to make things equal and to try to do that work again seems too hard. I wish I could have another baby but I waited a long time to have my first child because I wanted to get to a place where I could afford to have a baby and I wanted to make sure I was with a partner who understood that I didn’t want to sacrifice my life to be a parent and that was willing to take on parenting responsibilities with me. And yeah, my thinking has changed: I don’t think I ever thought about how much expense and time and even the physical toll it takes to be a parent. When I was a younger person I thought you grow up, you have kids, you get a house.. I just didn’t give it the thought in terms of cost and labor and even permanent sacrifice of my own physical body. And that’s how my thinking has changed.