CHILD-free social groups are springing up as a growing number of people choose not be parents.

Casey Pilcher, a truck driver from Newlyn in central Victoria, established meet-up group Childfree Victoria in March in the hope of meeting like-minded couples and singletons.



"I don't feel any paternal instinct," he said.



"I'd rather be doing my own thing or be in a couple, having my own experiences."



He hoped Childfree Victoria would experience the same success as Brisbane Childfree, which has attracted nearly 300 members since its inception in September 2007.



"I'm doing it for me, but I'm also doing it to help others in the same situation because I know how they feel," he said.



"It's especially the case for singles, but couples also have the same problem - none of their friends and families have the time to socialise with them any more because they all have children."



The group held its first event - dinner in St Kilda - several weeks ago.



Susan Moore and her husband David founded Child-Free Zone - a national group for people who choose not to be parents - after the couple grew tired of people asking them when they were going to have children. "Having children is something that I've never wanted to do," she said. "It was never on the list for me as something that I wanted to do and I've never really changed my mind on that."



While Child-Free Zone doesn't classify itself as a political lobby group, Ms Moore said many of its members felt marginalised by the Federal Government's focus on families.



"Much of the discussion that's been going on this week has been around the whole working families cliche and how left out it leaves people who don't fit into Kevin Rudd's definition of what it is," she said.



About one in five Australian women will never have children, up from one in 10 in the early 1970s, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data cited on Child-Free Zone's website.



Timothy Cannon, spokesman for the Australian Family Association, said the group had no objection to the child-free movement provided it didn't demonise parents.



"If people make the choice not to have children that's fine, but they should still recognise that having children is a necessary part for human communities continuing to exist," he said.

Originally published as Kid-free zone the way to go