The Sydney Morning Herald logo
The Sydney Morning Herald logo

Motherhood

Advertisement
The link between smartphones and falling fertility rates is becoming clear

Seven things to know about Australia’s baby bust – and what it means for you

The smartphone is copping some of the blame for the declining global fertility rate. Middle children are out of style. And there is a big difference between childfree and childless.

  • Matt Wade and Bronte Gossling

Latest

Sydney horticulturalist Felicity Moody is an only child. She loved having her mother’s undivided love growing up, but does acknowledge it would be nice to have a sibling as her mother ages.

Selfish, spoiled, lonely … these only children have heard it all. But are the stereotypes true?

As Australia’s fertility rate falls, single-child families are on the rise. Most only children see no issue with that – but not all.

  • Bronte Gossling and Pablo Barnes
How much does it cost to raise a child today?

Raising a child today costs as much as a small mortgage – and that’s before you put education on the tab

This is how much kids cost. Even without accounting for private school fees, piano lessons and braces, parents are feeling it.

  • Shane Wright
Kate Halfpenny (front) with her siblings (from left) Louise, Jane and Craig.

The middle child is a dying breed – and this is why society will be worse off without us

I share this connection with Princess Diana and Winston Churchill. And it’s in danger of being lost.

  • Kate Halfpenny
Mum with the Sydney Morning Herald crossword outside her home in Neutral Bay in August 2023.

I thought I knew awkward. Then Mum published her Swinging Sixties travel diary

Mum never thought anyone – least of all her future children – would ever read her diary. Then her granddaughter asked what a hitchhiker was.

  • Stephen Brook
Alisha Fagan, who turned to art as a form of rehabilitation during her time in prison.

When she went to jail, Alisha’s baby was a newborn. Nothing prepared her for the struggle

Prison release is often thought of as freedom, but for some women, it can feel like a second punishment.

  • Shona Hendley
Advertisement
NSW South Coast couple Steph Powell, 39, and husband Mark Powell, 40, with their five sons (L-R): Harlo, 11, Taj, 13, Bodhi, 3, Sabre, 7, Hendrix, 9. Steph says she would have more children if they didn’t grow up.

What it’s really like to have a big family today

Stares at the supermarket. 3am starts. Batch cooking champions. As Australia’s fertility rate falls to a record low, families with four or more children are becoming a rare species.

  • Bronte Gossling
Adult children aren’t always impressed by their parents “gallivanting” in their later years.

Want to really gross out your adult kids? Tell them how much fun you’re having

My friends are leading secret lives to avoid their judgemental kids. But not me.

  • Kathy Lette
Growing up in Perth playing with Baby Born dolls, Bianka Ismailovski never questioned that she’d become a mother. But she never felt maternal. “I was doing what I thought was expected of me,” she says. Once you start challenging stereotypes when you get divorced at 30, she laughs, then there’s no reason to stop.

The people who say no to being a parent, and have very happy lives

Australia’s fertility rate is at a record low, putting those who have made the personal choice to be child-free in the centre of a political battleground whether they like it or not.

  • Bronte Gossling
There’s a great life to be had out the other side of the baby-making vortex, says author Katrina Strickland, pictured here with Teo.

I didn’t choose to be ‘childless’, but life on the other side is actually pretty great

For some of the unintentionally childless there were medical issues. For others, it was the result of not one big decision but dozens of little ones.

  • Katrina Strickland