The National Organization for Non-Parents (N.O.N.) was started in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, by Ellen Peck and Shirley Radl in 1972. N.O.N was formed to advance the notion that people could choose not to have children—to be

childfree Voluntary childlessness, also called being childfree, describes the voluntary choice to not have children. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing not to have children was both difficult and undesirable. The availability of rel ...

. Changing its name to the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood, it continued into the early 1980s both as a support group for those making the decision to be childfree and an advocacy group fighting

pronatalism Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is an ideology that promotes the reproduction of human life as the preeminent objective of being human. Compare: The term, as it relates to the belief itself, comes from the French wo ...

(attitudes/advertising/etc. promoting or glorifying parenthood). According to its bylaws, the purpose of the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood was to educate the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

on non-parenthood as a valid

lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...

option, support those who choose not to have children, promote awareness of the

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...

problem, and assist other groups that advanced the goals of the organization. N.O.N.'s offices were located in

Reisterstown, Maryland Reisterstown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,968. Founded by German immigrant John Reister in 1758, Reisterstown is located ...

; then

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

; and, ultimately, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The organization's most widely distributed publication was "Am I Parent Material?" This publication is still in print and distributed by ETR Associates in

Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles (48 km) south of downtown San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mount ...

. NON designated August 1 as Non-Parents' Day, and forty years later, in 2013, Laura Carroll, a childfree author and writer on the childfree choice, spearheaded bringing back this "Day" on August 1 of each year as International Childfree Day, an "annual recognition of amazing childfree people and their lives, and as a wonderful way to foster the acceptance of the childfree choice in today’s society". Some of the early works on non-parenthood/being childfree include: *"The Baby Trap" 1971 by Ellen Peck and William Granzig *"Mother's Day is Over" 1973 by Shirley Radl *"Pronatalism: The Myth of Mom and Apple Pie" 1974 by Ellen Peck and Judith Senderowitz *"A Baby Maybe" 1975 by Elizabeth Whelan *"Childless by Choice" 1975 by Jean Veevers *"The Parent Test: How to Measure and Develop Your Talent for Parenthood" ()(1978) with by Ellen Peck and William Granzig More recent works include: *''The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World'' 2012 by Laura Carroll (LiveTrue Books, )

References

Sources

TIME on N.O.N
Antinatalism 1972 establishments in California Organizations established in 1972 Organizations based in Palo Alto, California Childfree {{US-org-stub

See also

References

Sources