As someone who is 37 and childless, I can answer this by saying it is complex. I wanted children in my early twenties, back when I was going to church more than anything else and I felt that this was the right thing to do. In my mid- to late twenties I didn't want children simply because I realized that, when I looked deeper than other people's expectations, I realized that I didn't have the desire to be a parent. And I was dealing with my own "stuff" at the time. Now, I wouldn't mind having one child. Of the men who have passed through my life most recently I think, "If they became a more permanent fixture, would I want a child with them?" The answer is yes. Not because I am lonely; a child is not something to relieve loneliness. I would do it because I loved the man I was with, and because I would want to raise a child with him, to have a little family.

I am sometimes lonely, but it is not because I am childless.