Dinahmo
I'm child free. At no time did anyone criticize me for not wanting them. My husband didn't want them either.
Sometimes journalists write articles about how selfish the child free are but if you don't have the desire for them you shouldn't have them.
Once in my life I had a slight twinge when I saw a friend with her son for the first time. He was particularly special because after her first child she had been told she wouldn't be able to have another. They adopted a mixed race child and about 5 or 6 years later she became pregnant. I watched mother and baby and thought that the love between them was probably the most perfect. Ten minutes later sanity kicked in. I'm not a fan of babies and much prefer children when they get to 2 or 3.
When I look around me I see how unhappy many families are. I'm one of four and I haven't seen two of my siblings since my mother's funeral which was more than 4 years ago.
I haven't seen my sister for at least 10 years. None of us have anything in common apart from the fact of our birth. I sometimes read other forums on hear and am saddened by the numbers of people who have fallen out with their children and don't see their grandchildren.
We both get on well with the children of friends that we've known from childhood. I think it's because we have never treated them as children.
Dinahmo's post could have been written about me. I haven't seen my siblings in years, we are not estranged just have nothing in common. Although there's no children, and therefore no Grandchildren, we wouldn't use any term like child free. We are a husband and wife, and have been for fifty two years. The babies that friends have had we have watched grow up, get married, have babies of their own, and always been in touch with them
Friend's children have stayed with us while their parents took a holiday, children have been very much a part of our lives. But often it's assumed that if you don't have your own then you don't like children.
I read either in this thread or another that someone without children was asked: "What will you do when you get old?" That was asked of me by someone, a man, in our social group. I told him that I would probably be in the same nursing home as him. But I wouldn't be the one wistfully staring out of the window waiting for the grown up children to visit. He looked crestfallen, "ain't that the truth," he admitted.