A collection of quotes from individuals and books regarding the childfree life.
Book: Why Don’t you have kids? By Leslie Lafayette
“Childless is closed to possibilities. Childfree is open to all that life can offer.” -pg. 197
“Shakespeare’s Juliet asked ” What’s in a name?” and the answer is — everything. The difference, the gap really, between childless and childfree is wide and filled with feelings ranging from anger and despair to satisfaction and contentment, depending, of course, on which end of the spectrum you find yourself.” – pg. 192
“If you have no children and you don’t feel childfree, you aren’t childfree. Period. But if someone else feels childfree, who are you to be angry with how they choose to describe their life’s orientation? “
-pg 193
Book: The Childfree Alternative By Kate Harper
“Being a parent in today’s world is most certainly a challenge. Being an adult without children is also a challenge. When you don’t have children, your role as an adult is not in any way mapped out. You must find your own way. There is little support for you; few can share with you the task of deciding what to do with a life that is your own. when no one else is depending on you, when material needs are relatively simple and easily met, the challenge is to live a life that has meaning for you.” – pg. 169
“Having children is like white water canoeing. Once you put that boat into the river and let yourself get swept along by the current, you have no choice but to ride it out. And what you can do to alter the course of the ride is a mixture of skill, knowledge, chance, and the nature of the river. For certain stretches, you are not inc control anymore. You go with what is there.” -p. 168
Book: The Baby Trap By Ellen Peck
“I’m grown up, and I want my life now, thank you. My adult life. And I want to live that adult life – directly. I don’t care to live a second childhood – vicariously.” – p. 14
“what most couples really want is to live life as fully and deeply as possible. That is what we want anyway. And we do not feel that we can do this and still raise a family. A family would provide its own kind of change and experience, true – but not the kind we want it would be when you get right down to it a repetition of experience Dash a repetition of the childhood experience. I could never justify it.” -p 14