TikToker reveals ‘scary’ reason young women don’t want kids

A Sydney-based TikToker has gone viral for her list of reasons she doesn’t want to have a baby – from fear of the “apocalypse” to disliking her child.

A Sydney-based TikToker has gone viral for her list of reasons she doesn’t want to have a baby.

In the lengthy clip, which has drummed up more than 665.5k views and 84.1k likes, 21-year-old Maria cited everything from the “apocalypse” to the prospect she won’t like her offspring.

“Reasons I will not be having children. Number one, I don’t want to,” she declared at the beginning of the video.

“Number two, I don’t want my belly to change. I don’t want my organs to move, there’s going to be something stuck in there for nine months.

“Scary things can happen to a woman during pregnancy – you can lose your hair, you can lose your teeth. I don’t want that.

“Number three, what if I don’t like them? Kids are going to grow up, and have their own thoughts and opinions. What if they’re really annoying and I actually hate my child? What if they become an alpha male with a podcast? What do I do then?”

@m.a.r.i.aaaaaaaa I like kids, I just don’t want my own #childfree#aunty#nokidsforme♬ Elevator Music - Bohoman

Another reason to not have a baby, Maria said, is the “threat of a future apocalypse”.

“The world is in a bad place. Realistically, we could be left without food in the next 25 years. Do I want to worry about myself [and] a child? No.”

She also said that she never wants to give birth, describing it as “a scary thing” that some “women die during”.

“You rip down to your a**hole and then doctors stitch you up and add an extra stitch for your husband so he can have pleasure,” Maria said, adding that she “wouldn’t change her mind” about her decision not to procreate.

Her video attracted more than 3000 comments, with many writing that they agreed, calling pregnancy the “biggest nightmare on earth” that has “literally not one single positive aspect to it”.

“It’s just not worth it to me,” one user commented, while another joked that she’d “rather be that childless fun, rich aunt”.

A Sydney-based TikToker has gone viral for her list of reasons she doesn’t want to have a baby – from fear of the “apocalypse” to disliking her child. Picture: TikTok

Others pointed out the double standard that Maria even had to justify why she doesn’t want to have a baby.

“As a mum, you shouldn’t have had to past the first one. ‘I don’t want to’ is a very valid reason! It’s your life and your body,” one woman noted.

“When I think about it, it’s crazy that women need to justify themselves for not wanting kids. Like men don’t need to justify. So why do we have to?!” agreed a second.

To which another replied: “Honestly! And I’m sick of the comments that we’ll change our mind.”

Maria, 21, said the “number one” reason she won’t be having a baby is because “I don’t want to”. Picture: TikTok

Commenters pointed out the double standard of her having to justify her choice. Picture: TikTok

The TikToker isn’t the only young woman to open up about her decision not to have kids – between climate change, wanting to “get ahead” in their career without “missing the window”, and the cost of living crisis, whether to have a baby or not seems a more daunting question than ever before.

According to research carried out last year by UK online pension providers PensionBee, one in 10 childless 18- to 23-year-olds are considering not having children.

On TikTok, the hashtag #childfree has hundreds of millions of views, under which thousands of videos have been collated showing women like Maria wondering why anyone would choose to have a baby.

“For the last 200 years we’ve been having fewer and fewer children … as you improve the health of women and offer education they decide to have fewer children,” Director of Oxford University’s Institute of Population Ageing and falling birthrates expert, Professor Sarah Harper, told huckmag last August.

“They’re now really in control of their child-bearing in a way they weren’t for so many generations.”