From Oprah to Seth Rogen, it’s always refreshing to hear public figures talk openly about why they’ve chosen not to have children. And even though Jennifer Lawrence is a happy mom of two, she’s urging people to think carefully before pursuing parenthood.
Jennifer is the guest on this week’s episode of the Smartless podcast, which is hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. During the interview, the group got into a discussion about kids, which prompted Sean to talk about his child-free life.
Sean explained that he and his husband, Scotty, haven’t had children because neither of them are absolutely sure they want them. “If he was 100%, then I’d be like ‘Great, let’s do it.’ But we’re both like 85%, you know?” he said. “It’s not fair to the kid.”
To this, his cohost Jason suggested that the nine months of pregnancy can be “a useful time for parents to kind of get their head around” the idea of raising a child before it actually happens. However, Jennifer agreed with Sean that parenthood isn’t something you should pursue unless you’re absolutely, categorically sure it’s what you want.
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“I don’t know. Whenever anybody tells me, ‘I’m not sure,’ I’m like, ‘Don’t do it,’” she said, calling out the societal judgment often imposed upon child-free couples. “It’s so weird that people are like, ‘You don’t have kids?!’ [because] when you have a kid, you’re like, ‘What the fuck?!’”
Providing some insight into how hard being a parent actually is, Jen said she thinks the invasive questioning towards child-free people should be flipped around, so we’re asking people why they want kids, instead of making people justify why they don’t want them.
“It should’ve been one out of a thousand people that go ‘OK, I think I’m gonna do it,’ and then everyone’s like ‘Are you sure?!’” she said. “That’s the way it should be.”
Jennifer’s view is similar to Seth Rogen’s past observation about the number of people who have children without really thinking about it. “You should only have kids if you really want kids,” he told Esquire in 2025. “I look at my friends with kids, and honestly, I feel like some of them are incredibly happy and fulfilled, and some of them seem like maybe they wish they had put a little more thought into it. I just didn’t want to be one of those people.”
Everyone’s experience is obviously different, but I’ve got to agree with Jennifer and Seth on this one. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! You can listen to J.Law’s full Smartless interview here.
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