--- title: Childless by Choice: The National Organization for Non-Parents description: An organization founded in 1972 aimed to promote the childfree lifestyle and dismantle the stigma assigned to childless couples. canonical: https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-08T16:15:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:55.767Z article:section: History og:title: How One Organization Started the Conversation on Childlessness og:description: The National Organization for Non-Parents started a dialogue that continues today og:url: https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cd4ba51619153bb/6987ea103c16392ba4455637/150408-no-children-society.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "NON" (National Organization for Non-parents; at Disneyland. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How One Organization Started the Conversation on Childlessness twitter:description: The National Organization for Non-Parents started a dialogue that continues today twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cd4ba51619153bb/6987ea103c16392ba4455637/150408-no-children-society.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘Selfish, Shallow and Neurotic’: How the Conversation on Childlessness Got Started  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 8, 2015 4:15 PM UTC  Caption from TIME. Child protesting against parenthood; A gift on Non-Father's Day. Caption from TIME. Child protesting against parenthood; A gift on Non-Father's Day.Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collecton/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 8, 2015 4:15 PM UTC New [data](http://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/) from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that more women in America are childless — or childfree, depending on how you look at it — than at any time since recordkeeping began in the 1970s. And it can seem as if the fewer people have children, the more people want to talk about it: For example, the release of the Census statistics coincides with the recent release of a new essay collection edited by Meghan Daum, [_Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids_](http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Shallow-Self-Absorbed-Sixteen-Decision/dp/1250052939). But, though some of the nuance and context in the conversation about childlessness may be new, the conversation itself is not. Much of today’s discussion of the topic echoes the criticism levied at the National Organization for Non-Parents (NON), a group founded in 1972 to promote the childfree lifestyle. The organization, which later changed its name to the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood, formed in response to a “pronatalist” culture that stigmatized childless couples. As [TIME wrote in 1972](http://time.com/vault/issue/1972-07-03/page/37/), “the cultural bias against childless couples is so strong that husbands and wives cannot choose non-parenthood freely; they know they will be branded selfish, shallow and neurotic.” NON’s 400 members also promoted the benefits of the childfree existence, as TIME explained: --- > “” --- That same year, LIFE Magazine [profiled](https://books.google.com/books?id=VFUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&dq=%22non-parents%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dTUlVea%5FFOGwsASK3YCwCw&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22non-parents%22&f=false) the organization’s executive director, Shirley Radl, a mother of two then at work on a book titled _Mother’s Day Is Over_. Radl lamented the “Big Lie” she and her husband had fallen for, succumbing to friends’ judgment of their lives as “hedonistic, meaningless.” Her words have not gone stale in the intervening decades: --- > “” --- **_Read TIME’s 2013 cover story on childlessness, here in the TIME archives:_** [The Childfree Life](http://time.com/241/having-it-all-without-having-children/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/"},"headline":"‘Selfish, Shallow and Neurotic’: How the Conversation on Childlessness Got Started","datePublished":"2015-04-08T16:15:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:55.767Z","description":"The National Organization for Non-Parents started a dialogue that continues today","url":"https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/","keywords":["Family","Living","motherhood","photography","Parenthood"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cd4ba51619153bb/6987ea103c16392ba4455637/150408-no-children-society.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8cd4ba51619153bb/6987ea103c16392ba4455637/150408-no-children-society.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"NON\" (National Organization for Non-parents; at Disneyland.","caption":"\"NON\" (National Organization for Non-parents; at Disneyland.","creditText":"Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collecton/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/family/","name":"Family"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3813535/national-organization-for-non-parents/","name":"‘Selfish, Shallow and Neurotic’: How the Conversation on Childlessness Got Started"}}]}] ```