Couple announces vasectomy with hilarious photos mimicking pregnancy photoshoot: 'Snip snip'

Tyler Frederick, 29,  and Chelsea Roy, 23, met each other four years ago but even before that they were sure of one thing — neither one wanted to have children. As a couple, they decided to make it official and Frederick had a vasectomy. The pressure on couples to have children can be overbearing, and Frederick and Roy decided to go off script and hold a child-free photo shoot that's gone viral on the internet. The hilarious pictures show the couple cuddling and posing as one would for a pregnancy photoshoot but replacing the baby bump with a onesie with the message "never coming." In another photo, they hold up a pair of underwear with the message: "Snip Snip." "For as long as I can remember, I have not wanted to have kids," said Roy, reported Today Parents. "And everyone who knew me knew that, so I wasn't pressured much to have kids since my answer never changed."

The couple held the photoshoot shortly after Frederick underwent a vasectomy. According to Mayo Clinic, "Vasectomy is a low-risk procedure widely known as a form of male birth control. The procedure cuts the supply of sperm to the semen and is completed by cutting and sealing the tubes that carry sperm." While many people feel pressure from their families to have children, Frederick had a lot of people to look up to. "I have a lot of older cousins that don't have kids, so I think they have taken the attention off of me a bit," he said. "I have not been too fond of children for a while, and my close friends and family have known that."

Frederick shared the photoshoot images on Facebook and captioned it: "We have a very exciting announcement to make! We are expecting... NEVER! Got snipped mid December and looking forward to the child-free life." He's also been getting a lot of messages from people after posting images of the photoshoot, with many thanking him for helping normalize not having children. "If these pictures make things any easier for someone pressured into having kids, or helps normalize this choice, then I'm happy to have helped others even just a little," said Frederick. He also added that everyone has their own reasons for not having children, and added that it's best to guess and intrude on their personal space.

Many lauded the couple for celebrating the decision. "This is amazing!!!! My husband got snipped last April and we couldn’t be happier to live the child-free life!?" wrote Stefana. "This is hilarious. To other people - it’s okay to be childless by choice," wrote Martino. One person asked why he took underwent vasectomy, instead of Chelsea undergoing tubal ligation. Jane pointed out, "Yeah, cause adult men can access a vasectomy ANY TIME AT ANY AGE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY HAVE KIDS OR NOT. He got the snip because WOMEN HAVE TO MEET AGE/KIDS CRITERIA before a dr will even consider a tubal ligation." 

Millennials are not keen on having children a survey by the Pew Research Center backs that up. It was found that more and more adults say they do not want to have children — ever. Some 44% of non-parents ages 18 to 49 say it is not too or not at all likely that they will have children someday, an increase of 7 percentage points from the 37% who said the same in a 2018 survey. Meanwhile, 74% of adults younger than 50 who are already parents say they are unlikely to have more kids, virtually unchanged since 2018.

“This is a trend we have been seeing for years; the birth rate is declining. We did not see a pandemic baby boom, like some people expected,” Christine Whelan, director of the Money, Relationships and Equality (MORE) center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told TODAY Parents. “Instead we saw a further decline during the pandemic, which makes sense because when you are concerned about your future — especially from a health perspective — then you don’t really want to bring children into the world.”

Pictures by: Facebook/elijah.vandine/tsfrederick