Just listened to the program. It was okay. It wasn't the worst I've heard and wasn't the best. The host seemed to spend a lot of time focusing on the "bingoes" we've come to expect (for example, "do you think you will regret not having kids?" "Do you worry about who will take care of you when you get old?") Some good material too. I wish one of her guests or callers would have said flat out, "I chose not to have kids because it's a dirty, grubby, exhausting, financially-draining pain-in-the-ass job that holds no appeal to me for obvious reasons".
It was interesting, but at times the comments and guests were quite condescending and patronising. Women who decided to be child-free were labelled as "Alpha females who were career-driven" by one guest. Another woman thought the term "child-free" was "strange". Please! I refuse to be pigeon-holed. I'm not career-driven, I'm just ME, a person who doesn't want children.
Yes, the "alpha female" thing got on my nerves too - the old cliche that if a woman doesn't want kids, she MUST be "career hungry", as though a good career is the only thing that would prevent a woman from wanting kids. Um, no. I don't want kids because I don't want a life of non-stop stress, chaos, upset, mess, marital strain and financial ruin.
And that caller who said the term "childfree" was strange and she didn't view herself that way was NOT a childfree woman. She was childless. She postponed because the time was never quite right, but sounds like she wanted kids all along. That is not what "childfree" means.
I thought it was okay. Honestly I thought the callers and speakers they had have had it easy. I've been physically abused, harassed and scorned for my choice to remain childfree. I really wanted someone to come out and say YES there is a huge stigma, YES some of our families have disowned us, YES we have lost friends, YES we have been passes up for promotions because we are childfree. I do think it is comparable to someone homosexual coming out 30 years ago. In fact my family makes SO much more of a fuss about me being childfree than me being bisexual.
5 comments:
Just listened to the program. It was okay. It wasn't the worst I've heard and wasn't the best. The host seemed to spend a lot of time focusing on the "bingoes" we've come to expect (for example, "do you think you will regret not having kids?" "Do you worry about who will take care of you when you get old?") Some good material too. I wish one of her guests or callers would have said flat out, "I chose not to have kids because it's a dirty, grubby, exhausting, financially-draining pain-in-the-ass job that holds no appeal to me for obvious reasons".
It was interesting, but at times the comments and guests were quite condescending and patronising. Women who decided to be child-free were labelled as "Alpha females who were career-driven" by one guest. Another woman thought the term "child-free" was "strange".
Please! I refuse to be pigeon-holed. I'm not career-driven, I'm just ME, a person who doesn't want children.
Yes, the "alpha female" thing got on my nerves too - the old cliche that if a woman doesn't want kids, she MUST be "career hungry", as though a good career is the only thing that would prevent a woman from wanting kids. Um, no. I don't want kids because I don't want a life of non-stop stress, chaos, upset, mess, marital strain and financial ruin.
And that caller who said the term "childfree" was strange and she didn't view herself that way was NOT a childfree woman. She was childless. She postponed because the time was never quite right, but sounds like she wanted kids all along. That is not what "childfree" means.
I thought it was okay. Honestly I thought the callers and speakers they had have had it easy. I've been physically abused, harassed and scorned for my choice to remain childfree. I really wanted someone to come out and say YES there is a huge stigma, YES some of our families have disowned us, YES we have lost friends, YES we have been passes up for promotions because we are childfree. I do think it is comparable to someone homosexual coming out 30 years ago. In fact my family makes SO much more of a fuss about me being childfree than me being bisexual.
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