单项选择题
| In the past, young married couples
often had children right after getting married. They didn’t ask themselves if
they had the desire to stay up at night with babies, to spend a good part of
their time with children, to give up going out at night whenever they wanted to.
Now, many young couples feel that not having children will allow them to have a
freer, more enjoyable life style. Never has the question of family size attracted as much attention in this country as it is getting now. In this time of "the pill", women’s liberation, and high prices, young couples are giving serious thought to the number of children they want, can afford, or can raise successfully. What are the emotional or financial problems of raising a big family Does raising children become incompatible with wife’s working career in the out side world Can a childless couple achieve lasting satisfaction on their own Michael Shandrik, 29, and his wife Pamela, 31, for example, have joined the growing number of young couples who don’t have, and don’t want children. Many of their close friends are childless and plan to remain that way. Michael says the decision not to have children developed over four years of marriage. He explains, "We never decided to become childless. It more or less became an understanding after we got married." Pamela adds, "If I had married before 23, I probably would have had children. But as the years went by, I got used to the idea of working and not having children It’s too late to change now." For both of them, the desire for a free-style played a big part in the decision. Michael, who wants to build a career in communications, makes the point honestly: "We are just too selfish to have children at the point. We would rather buy the things we really want than go without things for the sake of children. If we had a kid, we would have to start thinking about its education and health. We like the independence of getting up and going somewhere whenever we want. I want to go ahead." Pamela, too, is concerned about her career. But she also speaks about the need to prevent over-population. She says she is a supporter of Zero Population Growth, and adds, "I am doing my part to keep the world from being over-crowded with human beings in another 100 years. Furthermore, from woman’s point of view, if you have children when you are young, there is a 50-50 chance you will be raising them alone. I know a lot of divorced women with children. It’s hard for them to raise their children alone." Thus tile decision has been made to remain childless. |