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More and more adults are choosing not to have children.
It is a big life decision that can impact your friendships andrelationshipsin the long term.
Once people have children, they might have less in common with their friends who are not parents.
One Redditorexperienced this possible rift with her own friends.
As she was out with them one whos a parent and the other whos pregnant an interesting argumentbroke out.
The friends called out the OP for not responding maternally to a crying baby, calling her heartless.
That was probably due to the widespread myth of maternal instinct.
However, psychology professionals no longer believe that this phenomenon is true.
She says that what people call maternal instinct comes from experience.
So why should a woman respond to the cries of a baby when its not even theirs?
In 2012, Oxford Universityresearchersfound that a babys cries speed up reaction time in adults.
Rodents have to have given birth before they care about pups.
Humans dont have such a selective response.
Grandparents andadoptive parentscan feel it, too.
Sometimes, people might start feeling that they dont have enough things in common anymore.
Researchshows that the quality of friendships decreases after people have kids.
And the earlier they have them, the greater the decline is.
Ellen Walker, Ph.
D., writes that both sides should meet in the middle if they wish to keep the friendship.
Even if youre child-free, it is still your friend, and you should respect their position.
Try getting your friend out of the house without the baby for at least a half-hour walk.
The friend who has children should be understanding toward their child-free friend as well.
Dr. Walkerrecommendsfriends shake off this opinion if they want the friendship to continue.
Check out the results:
