"It may look different for each of us. But all of us are seeking community, regardless of our life paths."

 

There's an excellent essay in The Guardian by Cassidy Randall about how being childfree can affect friendships, titled "I chose to be childfree. I didn’t think I was choosing isolation, too."

An excerpt:

I’ve maintained, as best I can, my changed relationships with friends who became parents. But friends who were also childless by choice? Those were like gold, rare and precious.

[...]

Because I’m an extrovert to whom relationships and a strong community are a bedrock value, living outside of such a prominent group for whom community seems to be a given can feel particularly lonely. Especially because I don’t want to grow apart from these friends more than the parenting divide already inevitably pushes us. I want their toddlers to paint my nails, I want to hear where their teenagers are thinking of going to college — along with everything else in my friends’ lives, from relationships and work to grief and celebrations.

[...]

It may look different for each of us. But all of us are seeking community, regardless of our life paths — chosen and not.

Many of the women featured in our Seven Questions series talk about how their friendships with parents have changed as they've continued their lives childfree. It's such an important topic for childfree women, and I'm always so thrilled to see someone talking about it in such a thoughtful way.

Read Randall's entire essay here.

Please support Zero Kids Zero Regrets by visiting MenoLabs, dedicated to bringing advanced, innovative, and naturally sourced solutions to a woman's menopause journey.