In honor of Women’s History Month, this month’s On-the-Ground question has been: Who is your favorite childfree woman and why? She can be dead or alive, famous or not, someone from your professional or personal life, etc. I have been collecting responses over the course of the month, and am noticing an interesting thing…
Not so surprisingly, people are talking a lot about the famous, alive and not. But I am hearing much less about favorite childfree who are not famous public figures, or those favorite childfree people know personally. I am asking myself-Where are the not-famous favorite childfree?
Now last summer, I asked a similar On-the-Ground question, but it was not just about childfree women-The On-the-Ground question was, “What childfree person do you admire most and why?” I got so many responses that had to do with childfree men and women in people’s personal lives, I excerpted some of my favorites in two consecutive posts.
I thought for sure I’d get more of personal stories like these this month. But not so far. Now I realize it can just have to do with those who choose to write in a response to the OTG question–there may be plenty of favorite childfree women out there that people would choose from people’s personal lives.
It may also mean that there are just fewer childfree women that people have come in contact with in their lives, and even fewer still that they would pick as their “favorite” of all to choose from.
When I interviewed couples for Families of Two, many women talked about how they did have someone in their early life that showed them you could grow up and opt out of motherhood. Even I did–my godmother showed me this. Others had women in their lives they would call their mentors. But their favorite childfree woman? Maybe not.
Then again, maybe so! So in the time remaining this month, if you have a favorite childfree woman from any realm of your personal life experience, let’s hear from you!
In many ways, these are the more inspiring stories to tell, because they are close to home.
As self-serving as it may sound, I’m my own favorite childfree person. I know that not having kids was the right decision for me and I’ve built a nice life for myself. Here’s a link to a blogpost I wrote about being childfree…and just free: http://www.thespinsterliciouslife.com/2011/10/child-freeor-just-free-oldie-but-goodie.html #Spinsterlicious
I love Spinsterlicious’s response that she is her own favourite childfree person!
I thought hard about your question and realised I only knew one non-mother growing up. I was fond of her and respected her a lot, but I suppose she is really my favourite by default!
I wonder if other people are in a similar situation, with slim pickings in terms of thinking about their favourite non-famous childfree person?
Unfortunately, I did not have a childfree role model growing up. When I was a kid, my family was acquainted with very few childfree/less couples. (I used to think that lifestyle, married with no kids, sounded awesome. I always wondered why people had to have kids after getting married.) In college, I had a childfree roommate who was in her late 40’s. She had gone back to school for a graduate degree- looked much younger by the way. Her life was very full and she had traveled a lot and had an exciting career before going back to school. I later worked with two women, both married, who had chosen not to have kids. I would definitely say they were two favorites! They both have freedom to do what they want, have full social lives, and have some interesting hobbies. It seems like us childfree have to find our role models, if you will, online or just forge our own paths. I don’t think most of us are exposed to childfree adults in childhood (and sometimes our pronatalist peers don’t want us around their kids because of silly stereotypes). This site is a wonderful place to learn.