It’s a public relations spin on the word “childless” to distinguish between people who want to and cannot have children (at least not at that time of description) and to describe people not wanting children as not lacking. For those not familiar with the term “childfree,” it’s a term identifying people who opt not to have children. Not the first time that I’ve mentioned this but I spent a great deal of time last summer exploring books that discussed my option not to have children. It lacks some of the academic spin of The Baby Boon and avoids a lot of the mistakes in The Childless Revolution and it’s a solid work that’s easy to read and does a good job exploring the childfree. This has definitely been my favorite childfree book so far. Another area of interest for myself was Defago’s discussion of the effort some childfree people/women feel is necessary to prove that they still like/care for children and can still be caring/compassionate – i.e.
For example, one area of interest is how, especially in western cultures, we embrace choice and the disgust and rejection that can (and does) occur when suggestions resulting from social pressures rather than choice.
This book offers a lot of representations of the childfree within the pages and goes back and forth from being “fluff” to the occasional grabbing sentence that deserves more thought than some of the entire chapters. Childfree and Loving It! is no different except it fully embraces a positive look at being childfree (not to mention not treating the environmentally childfree as loons) without negatively portraying parenthood, but still with no fear of criticizing parenthood. It sat on my bedside stand for months until I got through The Childless Revolution and The Baby Boon only in an act of frustration to pick up this book thinking: “There has to be something better!” And I was right, there does have to be something better, and if this book is not entirely something better it’s an improvement over these other two.īefore going too much into this book, all of the childfree literature I’ve read has offered alternative interpretations and perspectives.
I was warned that the book was a lot of “fluff” but still an enjoyable read. Filed under: book reviews, nonfiction | Tags: childfree, childfree literature, childless, feminism, nicki defagoĮarlier in the year (if not last year) a professor loaned Childfree & Loving It! to me.
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