A 30-year-old woman turned to Reddit after her 45-year-old husband told her he no longer wants to have children.
The reason? He’s been reading about artificial intelligence and now believes the future looks too grim.
They were supposed to start trying for a baby the following month.
“We’ve already done all the preconception tests, everything was ready,” she wrote.
Then he dropped the news: after consuming projections from Goldman Sachs and talking to “people who know things,” he now thinks AI will destroy the job market and that it would be irresponsible to bring a child into such a world.
Fear or Excuse?
The woman explained that her husband works in finance and is highly educated, but his reasoning felt extreme. “He’s not a futurologist, nor a sociologist or an anthropologist,” she wrote.
“How can he make such a drastic and catastrophist prediction with so much certainty?”
That confusion hit home for a lot of Reddit users, who quickly filled the post with comments.
A major theme: many believed her husband’s decision was more about personal hesitation than global doom.
“People either want kids or they don’t want kids. Then they find things to justify their position,” one person wrote.
Another added, “He just doesn’t want a baby (or is having second thoughts). The AI is just an excuse.”
Some pointed out the timing was suspicious, since his concerns emerged just as they were about to start trying.
One user quipped, “This is the funniest thing I’ve read on Reddit today. Either he’s the biggest idiot or he’s just playing you.”
The AI Panic Debate
Others said his fears weren’t completely unfounded.
“AI is the least of our worries. See, ‘Lowball estimates using linear rates of increase show planet reaching 4°C before 2100,'” one person wrote, suggesting climate change might be a more valid concern.
Even some in tech agreed that worry about the future is understandable. “I work with AI tooling every day,” one person wrote.
“What we have now isn’t going to replace all jobs. I think not having a kid because of the rise of AI is a bit silly. But it’s definitely not without its merits with all the layoffs, warranted or not.”
Still, AI experts warned not to make major life decisions based on uncertain predictions.
“Even myself and my colleagues have the humility to accept that we really don’t know what’s coming in 20 years,” one AI researcher wrote. “
Your well-educated husband would be well advised to not live his life based on what an investment bank writes.”
Another added, “Having the calculator didn’t make the teachers or the accountants redundant. Humanity will never run out of problems to solve.”
Parenting in Uncertain Times
Many Redditors reflected on their own parenting decisions.
“I have children and yeah, I’m worried about what their future will be… Would I change the fact that I had them? Not in a million f***ing lifetimes,” one person said.
Others admitted they now have doubts. “I have 2 that are in college. I would have told my younger self to not do it, given the choice and knowledge I have today,” someone else wrote.
Yet plenty argued that fear alone shouldn’t stop someone from having a family.
“When I was a kid, people voiced the same opinion on what they thought was the eventual nuclear war,” one user recalled. “The paranoia was real and we had school classes on fallout etc.”
After the Panic
The original poster later updated her story. It turns out her husband may have spoken out of fear and exhaustion.
“He doesn’t want to give up on the idea of becoming a father,” she wrote. “His words came from a place of fear; he’s worried he might not be capable enough for the role.”
Whether it’s fear of AI, climate change, or not feeling up to the task, the deeper issue may not be technology.
In the end, no one knows exactly what’s coming.
But deciding to start a family has always involved risk and hope.
For many people, it’s not about waiting for the perfect moment. It’s about moving forward together and figuring it out along the way.