Childfree Brits speaking out!
Nicki DeFago, the U.K. author of "Childfree and Loving It," writes in the Scotsman:What’s hard to understand is why it matters so much to other parents that I won’t be having a baby. Reactions have been so hostile. Within moments of meeting, new acquaintances have told me I’m selfish, but one person’s selfishness is another’s freedom. I may be able to arrange my days as I please, but people have children because they want them - not for the greater good of society. If they do end up spending their days driving between schools, ballet and music lessons, it’s because that is the lifestyle they chose for themselves. Mother Teresa didn’t have children but she wasn’t selfish, was she?
And in this Telegraph article titled "I'm not ill or nasty, I just don't want to be a mum," Kate Battersby explains:
My illness is not catching, but increasing numbers of women have it. It's called nulliparity. Chambers Concise Dictionary defines a nullipara as a woman who has never given birth to a child, especially a woman who is not a virgin.
Twenty per cent of British women fall into this group; moreover, 20 per cent of British women in their thirties have specifically opted to be childless.
Finally, the Daily Mail reports on two women who've just published a book called "Beyond Childlessness."
In researching their book, Louise and Rachel spoke to over 200 women. Many had fertility problems and a history of unsuccessful IVF treatments, others had married men who already had children and didn't want a second family.
They tell their stories and identify coping strategies which range from taking up gardening to sponsoring a Third World child. Whatever their experience, the key to their happiness was being able to jettison their negative image as non-mothers. "All of us in the end have to face up to who we are and where we are going," says Rachel.
