Children

I watched House last night, and the dramatic endings of the last two episodes got me thinking about things I've liked and disliked about this season in general. One thing that has bugged me is how they only focus on one or two subplots at a time, and when they're "done" they simply disappear from the show. One such subplot is Taub's life, and so I was thinking about one of the last things we heard from him - a conversation with his wife about kids.

Taub's wife doesn't want kids. She didn't want them at the beginning of their relationship and he agreed to that and she still doesn't. Taub is apparently having some doubts. As I said this hasn't had any consequence in the show since the conversation was shown, but it got me thinking. Myself, I've always wanted a child and I've never changed my mind or doubted that. I don't think I even ever made up my mind about it; it's a desire I remember myself as just always having. On the other hand, many people my age don't want kids; I don't know what their thought processes have been about this. Others aren't sure. I know very few older adults without children, and the ones I do, I don't know if they want children.

The essential question I wonder, then, is what kinds of experiences about this are most common? Most particularly, how much do people tend to be certain about the issue, as I've been, and how much does it tend to be something they don't know at first and eventually decide? How often do people hold one attitude for a long time and later change their mind? I'm sure there is also a contingent of people who never consider the fact that it's a choice, and just have kids because that's what people do, though this is surely a shrinking population at least in the industrialized world.