Based on changes in the family and its values in metropolitan cities in recent years, we have witnessed many transitions in fertility that have occurred in the concept of family. Reproductive behaviors indicate that deep and ontological alterations have occurred in the minds, that is, the context of meaning formation, the practical result of which is childless and single-child couples in today societies. The present study aimed to understand the introspection of childless and single-child couples living in Isfahan about their worries in facing responsibility of being parent.
Using a qualitative method and an interpretive approach and theoretical sampling, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted, including 15 interviews with childless couples who had been married for at least 3 years and 15 interviews with single-child couples who had decided to have only one child.
The core category of the research was titled “de-childing responsibility” and its central phenomenon was titled “reinterpretation of the meaning of child.”
The feeling of responsibility toward children is one of the important concerns that can affect couples’ decisions to have children, and evidence suggests that at least one of the reasons for the intention to be childless or have few children for a group of parents was considerations related to the responsibilities of parenting. This process has reinterpreted their perception of being a parent and has questioned the retrospective meaning of a child that was associated with duty and forced choices.