Living Without Children
When you are beginning the process of coming to terms with living without children, you may want to consider finding support with like-minded individuals, giving your spouse and yourself the space to grow and feel these feelings.
Options:
Navigating the emotional journey toward accepting a life without children often involves going through the process of grieving. For those who have struggled with infertility, childlessness is a difficult outcome to conceptualize. It is not a choice. It is not a resolution. It is a loss of the life you imagined you would experience. Many of those who have faced infertility resulting in childlessness often feel depressed, and their feelings are often ignored, overlooked, and especially not understood. This is because of the incorrect assumption many people make that those who are living childfree are doing so willingly.
Many people, especially women, connect their value and worth in womanhood with the ability to become a biological mother. As society esteems and rewards those who have children, often ignoring and dismissing those who are childless not by choice. However, it is precisely this step in the direction of another path that one must take when moving toward resolution.
When you are beginning the process of coming to terms with living without children, you may want to consider finding support with like-minded individuals, giving your spouse and yourself the space to grow and feel these feelings. It may also be a good idea to look into resources that can help you develop coping strategies so that you can build resilience and nurture your emotional wellbeing.
Note:
We are sensitive to using the terms childfree versus childless. The term childfree is mostly used on this resource page, according to the results of a recent survey administered by Tutum Global. Over 400 childless not by choice women (CNBC) were asked about their preferred terminology, using question-wording: If you are CNBC, do you prefer childless or childfree?
Results showed that 55% preferred childfree and 45% preferred childless While the results were significantly close, they also provided valuable information on how we can earnestly attempt to use the term that is most acceptable to the group being described.
