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Life Without Children December Writing Prompt
It's the silly season; prepare for inappropriate questions. What do you wish friends and family asked or didn't ask you?
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Medium rocks ass.
But one thing that frustrates me is that we can’t subscribe to publications in the same way we can subscribe to writers. This means we often miss new stories published in our favourite publications because there is no system to notify us.
Fear not, my friends, I have circumnavigated this.
I have created a list of all the stories published at Life Without Children. If you save this list, each time a story is added, you will receive a notification.
Ta da. Don’t you just love creative solutions?
Oh, and did you know we have a Discord server with Sista Publications? Join here.
What childfree or childless content have you been reading, listening to, watching or creating? Please feel free to share any links in the comments section.
My favourite piece of content, (outside Life Without Children of course), for this month is this incredible article titled The childfree: a neglected population published in The British Psychological Society.
The article references two of my favourite researchers on this topic — Social Psychology Professors and married couple Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary Neal (Michigan State University) and validates the real lived experiences of those of us who are childfree by choice.
For instance, those of us who are childfree by choice are judged harshly in terms of our in terms of our “perceived likeability and moral character.” Ouch right?
The article also touches on a 2017 study by Dr Leslie Ashburn-Nardo (Drexel University), who found that childfree people are the target of greater moral outrage.
Life Without Children writing prompt for December
Last month’s writing prompt was all about grief and loss.
You are welcome to continue writing to our previous writing prompts and submitting your stories to us at Life Without Children. Or you may even prefer to use our prompts for your private journaling.
However you use these monthly prompts, I hope they help you navigate your life without children.
You may even want to dedicate a journal to our monthly prompts and follow along each month to help draw out your inner feelings and get to know yourself better.
December writing prompt: It’s silly season. This time of year can be particularly challenging. It is that time of year when inappropriate questions infiltrate every social gathering.
What do you wish friends and family asked or didn’t ask you? What presumptions and assumptions are made about you?
Maybe you have a story about how you shut up your relentless Great Aunt Mary and owned the conversation like a pro. Perhaps you have a story of exclusion, anguish and hurt.
Maybe this is your first Christmas since deciding to be childfree or accepting your future as childless. What hopes and fears do you hold?
Whatever your story, we want to hear it and are a safe space for you to share it.
Tips for writing to our prompts
Remember when you write your piece — make us feel something.
A powerful story is a human story. Sprinkle your writing with real experience and emotion.
Don’t forget to ensure your piece fits our submission guidelines.
Take a read through some of our published stories to see what sort of thing we publish.
Please use “writing prompts” and “life without children” as two of your topic tags.
If you aren’t already a writer with Life Without Children, find out how to become a writer here.
And finally, if you don’t use Medium and want to get started, this handy document will help you learn how.
Reflections from November at Life Without Children
Our writers have been on fire throughout November.
Firstly, a HUGE congratulations to Lisa Kissane who achieved not only her first boost, but her second and third, too. Yes, that’s a hat trick for Lisa with these three beautiful stories. (If you don’t know what the boost is, find out more here.)
Can I Opt Out of Christmas Without Being Branded a Grinch?
Adoption and Fostering Are Not a Cure For Infertility
Everyone One of Us Is A Unique Work of Art - Whether We Have Kids or Not
And then we welcomed new writer Barbara Whitfield who only went and got a boost with her very first Medium story!
Tears, Sweat and Blood - Seeking an Answer to Unexplained Infertility
My final shout-out for this month goes to Neela 🌶️. She talks about how for friendships to survive when we take different paths, we need to stop trying to find common ground and instead be “cultural ambassadors” to each other. Sheesh, I love that.
Your Friend Had a Baby. Now What?
What will December bring?
I am going to take a week away from my computer. So please note that if you submit any stories between the 21st and 28th of December, the turnaround time may not be as quick as usual.
Incase you missed it — I’m hosting a session all about Medium over at FLOW, which is an online networking space for non-parents.
It’s on 25th February and is open to everyone. For non-members there will be a small cost of £12.50. The cost is reduced to £5 if you sign-up to the FLOW newsletter, upon signing up you will receive a voucher, which is redeemable against this session.
You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.
Sign-up for my session here.
Have a great December, everyone. You got this.
Thanks for reading this piece which was originally published on Medium. If you enjoyed it, I’d love to hear your thoughts; please leave a comment or share it with a friend.
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