It used to be a running joke that men were afraid of commitment — the wife was the "ball and chain," and kids were something women had to pressure them into. But lately, an increasing number of women say the script has flipped entirely. Now, they're the ones opting out of parenthood, while men are the ones pushing for marriage and babies.

"As a woman myself, I remember when I was a kid/teenager, everyone said that marriage and kids were a ball and chain to a man — never tell a man you want kids, or he'd run away," u/CrystallizedKoi wrote in r/childfree. "Now it seems like women are largely the ones who don't want children, and men are determined to find a wife who wants their babies. They want a traditional marriage and a nuclear family.…