Childfree Network
From ChildfreeWiki
The Childfree Network, founded in 1992 by California-based author Leslie Lafayette, was a social group and advocacy organization for childfree adults. In its heyday (circa 1996), it had an estimated 2500-5000 members and chapters in thirty-three US cities. [1]
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History [edit]
The 1992 presidential election campaign, in which Clinton praised the V-chip, school uniforms and curfews while Dole condemned Hollywood's corruption of family values, largely ignored the agenda of people such as Lafayette, who is single and without children.
“Everything that everyone was talking about was family values, and everyone was parading their kids and grandkids out on the stage. I found it really offensive. It felt as if I didn't fit in anywhere. I knew there had to be other people out there like me.”- Leslie Lafayette on 1992's election campaign
Leslie Lafayette founded the Childfree Network that same year. The organization was promoted widely through media appearances and through publication of a book, "Why Don't You Have Kids? Living a Full Life without Parenthood" (1995, Leslie Lafayette, ISBN 0-8217-4853-X).
Childfree agenda [edit]
According to the group's founder, some members of the ChildFree Network are infertile or never found the right mate. "People have different reasons for being childless, but most choose not to have children." [2]
At one point, ChildFree Network offered a bimonthly newsletter, seminars, conferences and sociopolitical advocacy.
Issues on which the Childfree Network had spoken out included workplace inequities such as:
- Tax breaks for families with children
- People without children having to cover on the job for those who have kids
- Insurers paying for in-vitro fertilization procedures
“Why am I subsidizing somebody who wants to have kids? Infertility is not a disease. No one ever died from it. It's unfortunate, but there are so many children to adopt.”- Leslie Lafayette
Other common themes for the ChildFree Lifestyle newsletter included the delights of child-free travel and child-free dining, the joys of not having to pay for college tuition and the freedom to do many things unencumbered by children. [3][4]
World Childfree Day [edit]
The Childfree Network advocated the creation of a National ChildFree Adult Day, which falls on the first Sunday in June.
This theme was later supported by others, such as Suite101.com writer Cara Swann:
“I think we childfree should consider creating our own worldwide day of recognition. I can just imagine the antagonism this would garner from the childed, but it could be a way to spread our message: Not everyone has to reproduce. Happiness can be found without having children. [5]”- Cara Swann on World Childfree Day
The ChildFree Network also advocated schools educate students about realities and consequences of having children, as problems often stem from too many babies born to people with no idea of the full extent of responsibilities involved in parenting.
Much of the organization's platform followed in the footsteps of the (now-defunct) National Organization for Non-Parents of the 1970's.
Demise [edit]
By the late 1990's, as the result of the founder's departure from the helm, the national Childfree Network organization was no more.
“The ChildFree Network formerly based in California has gone out of business. Leslie Lafayette gave up the ChildFree Network and newsletter because of personal commitments. She will still be available as a CF spokesperson. Leslie gave her mailing list to a new CF group in Florida, the ChildFree Association in Brandon, FL. [6]”- alt.support.childfree FAQ on Childfree Network
In 1998, the ChildFree Association mailing list had been moved to www.childfree.net/cflist.html; this weblink has been dead since 2000.
Local chapters [edit]
Of the thirty-three local chapters, at most one or two continued to operate autonomously after the collapse of the national organization. Many of the others became chapters of Vancouver-based No Kidding!, a non-political childfree social organization.
The last remaining Childfree Network chapters appear to be:
- Minneapolis-St Paul, which continued independent operation under the Childfree Network name until 2004.
- Phoenix's local chapter is still active, and currently known as the Childfree Zone.
“We used to be an affiliate of The ChildFree Network in Citrus Heights, CA. Someone else was supposed to have taken over the parent organization, but their present status is not certain.”- Childfree Zone on the national Childfree Network
