The thing is, having children is a transformative experience. I don't think you can compare the two states of existence in the way the question assumes.
I call kids a "terrible blessing". There's so much downside, yet on the whole its not something you regret, once you make the transition. All generalizations are false, yet biologically we are made to sexually reproduce. Therefore reproduction and the creation of replacements is a natural part of life for most of us.
I don't think you can make value judgments about whether one situation is better or worse than another. It doesn't work that way. Having said that, I am reminded of something my adoptive mother told me before she died. Having spent a couple of decades in a very active community of older people, she found the ones without children the saddest. "They don't have anybody," she'd say sadly. Yes, they might have had a great life where they accomplished much and did all they wanted to do, they might even have a Rolodex full of friends, but at the end, there was nobody left for them. There were no replacements or people to carry on their memory long after they were gone. There was a deep loneliness and an empty spot as they socialized with others and enjoyed their last days. This was something others could notice. This was something most of them admitted to feeling.
Take that for what it's worth --- probably not a lot. For me, this is one of those things that looks dramatically different at age 47 than it did at age 17.
Daniel was real hinting at the evo bio genetic imperative, and how facing end of life not having kids makes you admit the death of your genetic line. I suspect that elders with nieces and nephews would feel something in between the other two cases.
I call kids a "terrible blessing". There's so much downside, yet on the whole its not something you regret, once you make the transition. All generalizations are false, yet biologically we are made to sexually reproduce. Therefore reproduction and the creation of replacements is a natural part of life for most of us.
I don't think you can make value judgments about whether one situation is better or worse than another. It doesn't work that way. Having said that, I am reminded of something my adoptive mother told me before she died. Having spent a couple of decades in a very active community of older people, she found the ones without children the saddest. "They don't have anybody," she'd say sadly. Yes, they might have had a great life where they accomplished much and did all they wanted to do, they might even have a Rolodex full of friends, but at the end, there was nobody left for them. There were no replacements or people to carry on their memory long after they were gone. There was a deep loneliness and an empty spot as they socialized with others and enjoyed their last days. This was something others could notice. This was something most of them admitted to feeling.
Take that for what it's worth --- probably not a lot. For me, this is one of those things that looks dramatically different at age 47 than it did at age 17.