As the oldest of the Baby Boomer generation turns 80 next year and the youngest become eligible for Social Security, President Trump is pushing for a second baby boom amid declining birth rates.
The Trump administration even floated a proposal for a $5,000 "baby bonus" to offset the costs of child rearing. But for many young couples, there is no amount of money to change their minds.
Tiana and PJ Morales got married seven years ago, and as newlyweds, they traveled the world.
Before too long, they say, relatives would ask if they planned to have children. But the Florida couple says they're not having kids — not now, not ever.
Tiana, now 37, says when she was younger, she assumed she'd be a mom, but after spending her early twenties as a nanny caring for four kids at once, that assumption changed.
"It just dawned on me, is this what I would want to do every single day?" Tiana said.
The U.S. fertility rate has plummeted in the last two decades and now sits near record lows, according to CDC data released last week. Some young adults say high costs are holding them back. Others fear climate change. Some are putting their careers first. But many say they simply don't want kids.
"We are raised to believe that it is our destiny to become parents," said Amy Blackstone, a University of Maine sociology professor who has published a number of studies on those who call themselves "child-free by choice."
It's a personal issue for Blackstone and her husband, Lance, who decided years ago to be a family of just two.
"Child-free person will say, 'I valued my relationship with my partner so much that I didn't want another party changing that relationship,'" Blackstone said. "A parent will say the imagined relationship with a child is so important to me that I want that relationship."
When Tiana's friends began having kids, she started organizing occasional get-togethers for others who want to be child-free. Their reasons range from lifestyle factors to what's going on in the world and climate change.
While Tiana Morales is mostly confident in her decision, she says a small part of her wonders what things will look like in the future.
"I grew up in a big family and the holidays were always surrounded by a large family. It's fun. And so as I age, what will holidays look like? Will they be just as fun? I don't know," she said.
But it was a choice — theirs and only theirs — that was made with careful thought.
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