Readers’ Stories

Until the year my mother died, she called me on my birthday to tell me this story: “I wasn’t sure I wanted another child after your brother was born.… Read the rest

I think it’s fair to say that the experience of most men is very different to that of women when it comes to being childfree. In fact, if I’m honest, until I reflected on it in any meaningful way recently in writing Your Children Are Boring, I didn’t realise quite how different it was.… Read the rest

I was never into children, even when I was a child myself. My sister was the total opposite and always wanted to babysit younger children or hold anyone’s new baby, which probably helped clarify how uninterested and un-enamored I was myself with children.… Read the rest

My name is Sandrine NGatchou. I created the Facebook Page Ovocytemoi. You have read my story about my struggles to become a mom.… Read the rest

I had my first miscarriage in 1986, followed by one during my not very successful marriage in 1996 and then the saddest one in 2006 with my soulmate.… Read the rest

I’m 64, childless and now also grandchildless, and I still love to work. It suits me well that I am not asked, like many of my peers, to have a fixed grandma day a week so the young parents can continue their two track lives of family and career.… Read the rest

I’m 61 years old. I have never been married. I never had kids. And I love every minute of it! I was raised in a strict conservative pre-Vatican II Catholic Christian family.… Read the rest

I’m 45, so I guess that’s the age that we realize it’s almost too late to have children. The regret of not having children should start to creep into my mind.… Read the rest

Looking to pitch a story about childfree black women to a mainstream publication, a journalist friend asked me: “When did you know that motherhood was just not for you?”… Read the rest

How do you feel when someone begins a sentence with “I’m not X, but…” or “I don’t hate X but…”? It doesn’t matter what words follow the buts because the “I’m not X, but…” evokes immediate suspicion.… Read the rest