Well... it might have been, except Ive found that lots of people dont quite know what to do with women of my age who dont come with human cargo.

Its not all their fault, I suppose. When people ask if you have any children, a no never explains the whole story. Instead, its the beginning of a whole new one.

Is it a no because you tried and failed, is it a no because you didnt meet the right man and your eggs withered and died, is it a no because you hate children (and have cultivated an evil cackle to match), or is it a no because you just didnt fancy it?

Or is it actuallynone of the above?

Now you could say that the subject of children is a sensitive and potentially charged issue for many women, and therefore not really anyone elses business.

And although youd be absolutelyright, that isnt a very practical thing to say, because people doask if you have kids all the time. The problem is that after youve reached a certain age, most of those people tend toexpect an automatic yes.

Instead you throw the no curveball, and the nice person youre talking to will look quickly down at the floor, out of the window or into their drink, not quiteknowing what to say next. Because youre a nice person (most of the time, anyway), you will try to make them feel better by hastily justifying your barren state.

This will usually lead on to something along the lines of: I dolike children honest! Ive got loads of nieces/nephews/godchildren! (delete as applicable). Just in case perish the thought anyone got the impression that there might be something a bitwrong with you. Something a bitunnatural.

The words that have evolved to describe female barren-ness dont exactly help matters. Childless and childfree are supposed to determine whether you actuallywanted to have a child and failed, or you made a choice not to have any.

Job done.

Really?

Be honest: what sort of person do you immediately picture when you hear the words childless and childfree?

The first is probably a lonely woman crying in a bobbly cardigan; the second a hedonist who drinks too much wine and spends lots of money on shoes. Both of them probably have at least one cat. One of them is cursed by her inability to have children; the other hates them instead, so both are probably best avoided in polite company.

Continued here:

'I'm a woman in her 40s with no children, and people don't quite know what to do with me.' - Mamamia