How often do you read a story and wonder what the thought process was behind it?
The writers here at Life Without Children regularly produce articles that generate conversation and instigate an expansion of mind.
Our new fortnightly series of LIVE conversations will explore the roots of the writer’s mind with short, sharp, explorative discussions.
Life Without Children’s first-ever LIVE discussion occurred on Thursday 18:00 hours (GMT+1) with culture writer Maria Garcia.
Maria would like children in the future, so she does not consider herself childfree or childless. Perhaps she’s more of a “not yet parent”, but she is astutely aware of the complexities for people without children - whether childfree or childless.
We discussed Maria’s article, which describes two quite extreme takes on choosing not to have children.
Motherhood, Choice, and the Endless Need for Justifications
Don’t miss the live discussion between Ali Hall (founder of Life Without Children) and the writer of this article, Maria Garcia. Happening on Thursday at 18:00 hours GMT.
Maria and I explored the ugly use of the word “selfish”, which is all too often used to describe people opting out of having children. We acknowledged the gendered connotations of this word.
We questioned whether there were any socially acceptable reasons not to have children. Ultimately, we don’t need a reason to be childfree. Simply not wanting kids is good enough.
I asked Maria to share with us, as someone who wants children in the future, how she would like to see the different life paths - having kids and not having kids - represented in the media. Her answer is full of eloquence and compassion.
While I struggled to get the word individualism out (does anyone else have words they stick on?), we recognised that all too often, people without kids are viewed by the haters as subscribing to individualism. In reality, often, people without kids give their time to others in service, such as volunteering.
Finally, while acknowledging that we are all different and celebrating these differences, we thought about the ways we can all build better connection and coherence and less judgement between people without children and those with.
Our conclusion can be summed up by the words of one of my favourite singers, Sam Garrett, in his song “More Life More Blessings”.
More life more blessings
More love more peace
More life more blessings
More unity
I hope you enjoy watching this discussion as much as we enjoyed having it.
Pop the details of our next LIVE discussion into your calendar. Here’s the link.
It’s on Thursday, 24th April, at 18:00 (GMT+1) with Nadia Huq. Nadia and I will be chatting about her exquisite piece, The Childless Woman Who Soared. I have temporarily brought it out of the archive to allow everyone access.
The Childless Woman Who Soared
Life Without Children is entirely reader-supported, and while the Substack will always be fully accessible to all, if you read it regularly and benefit from the content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Or, you can show appreciation for the content and
If you have any specific questions you’d like me to ask Nadia about this beautiful piece, drop them in the comments here.
And if there is a story published here at Life Without Children that you are just itching to hear the background on, let me know, and I will do my best to have a LIVE discussion with the writer about it.
See you on Thursday 24th at 6 pm UK/Ireland time.
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