It's a huge part of life to not experience if you decide not to have children.
There are so.many parts of life which I will never experience. I'll never have to flee a war torn zone or pay traffickers for a space in a dingy to cross a sea. I'll never look back at the earth from the space capsule or down from the top of Everest. No Olympic medals, no hunger, no homelessness, no poverty.
As for having children to fill up your time...
In my '60's child free by choice, I am very happy with my life. I work full time and have been pretty successful and have not taken any hit for maternity leave or needing to be flexible for school care. I have been mercifully free of the 'mum guilt' some of my colleagues occasionally express
I am financially solvent, if there is anything I want to have or to do, I know I have the means to do so. This does not leave me with whole oceans of time to fill, when I wonder what to do.
It means that I am in a position to have a lovely home, cleaner and gardener so really no chores other than to get up myself up and washed. I can take up interests and pursue hobbies. There is time and money to take an interest in young people, support charities (through payroll giving, naturally so that's out of gross income before tax). When I go out with friends, I can afford to pay my way, we can treat each other, without having to even think about never mind worry about the bill.
There are lots of situations where throwing money at a problem makes it all a lot less stressful. I've travelled a lot for work and fun, exec lounges and business class seats ate a very different world to being squashed together in economy with restless bored little ones.
I still expect value for money, I don't waste money but if I did, there would still be no consequences for me.
Another thing I am spared is the agony of having a child who disapproves of me, who has decided to go no contact and not be in my life.
I've been pretty fortunate in my DH. Some of the threads I find most heartbreaking on MN are those where someone is clearly being abused but hesitate about leaving because they have children. And as for the threads where the new DM gets landed with all or even most of the childcare for their DSC, while the children's father is let off scott free
Everyone who has had children deserve my gratitude: I see how the economy, and the world as we know it, would come to a halt if there were no next generation to follow us. I appreciate that I am not pulling my weight in providing that next generation. I am genuinely astonished by how many people are prepared to do so, what is essentially a selfless act of having children.
If the benefits were more dependable, there would be no need for what I see as the way people feel obliged to tell me how marvellous parenting is, how terrific the rewards and how empty life is without children, things like 'you will be sorry' or ' you won't know what you are missing'.
Some people are brilliant at parenting, many muddle though and some through no fault of their own hit the buffers. There are obviously intangible rewards of love and smiles, but these seem unevenly spread amongst those who deserve them.
And there can surely be nothing so heartbreaking as losing a child.
As an adult, I would encourage everyone to consider and decide for themselves whether to have children.
My sister has only ever wanted children and is brilliant at dealing with them, and with her grandchildren (and with me, too, to be fair, her six year younger baby sister ). I watch her with the grandchildren (all under ten) and of course see how much they love her and want her attention. I also see how much effort she puts into dealing with them. I certainly don't have that patience naturally and and happy to leave parenting to those who want to do it, as I'm sure they will be better at it than I am.
I'm happy to have a much more hands off role, see them occasionally and provide age-appropriate treats like theatre visits which they might not otherwise experience.
In my circle of friends, from different interests and activities, people tended to fall away when they had children. Not completely, but for many types of activities which are just not child friendly. They then joined in again when their children became independent. This means that I have lived in a mostly child free bubble where no one is ever expected to have children and these conversations are not commonplace.
Just like MN, I tend only to get interested enough to follow threads which are not anything to go with DC, so that my experience of MN, in common with the rest of my life, is largely child free.
Child free I get to do pretty much exactly whatever I want to do, highly recommended.