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Strollerderby
If Helen Mirren was a man, we’d know all about her Ducati collection. Or her devotion to transcendental meditation. Or her love of Japanese geishas. Instead, here’s what we know about Helen Mirren, based on the 243 pieces that have recently been published about her in various magazines and web properties:
1. She has an awesome body, despite being an old hag.
2. She has no children. We also know quite a bit about why she has no children. This is because every interviewer seems compelled to get to the bottom of this mysterious lack.
Fabulous work, impressive career, amazing knockers, Ms. Mirren. But what’s up with shirking your duty as a vessel for the next generation?
Why do women get flack for being childfree?
Do you have friends who have made the choice to be childfree? How do you feel about that decision?
While I have no idea why people would care if a woman chooses to be a mom or not, societal pressures still exist that make women feel “less than” for not having kids.
In some cases, women have no interest in having kids. In other cases, career aspirations are a high priority, and in other cases, travel or other interests take priority over having children. Continue reading »
Too big for stroller?
“When I have a baby of my own, it will be strapped to me as an infant, and then it will be walking. No middle ground.” That’s a quote from Laura Miller, a 27-year-old New Jersey native who lives in Jersey City. Miller is the curator of the Tumblr blog “Too Big for Stroller,” which – in the tradition of all great Tumblrs – consists of exactly what the title suggests: photos of big kids in strollers.
I’ll be the first to admit that the blog is funny, as is any blog that analyzes/mocks photos out of context. (“People of Wal*Mart” is hilarious… until you stop and think about how many times you’ve done a Wal*Mart run unshowered and in sweats.) The snarky tone of the blog speaks to the “stroller rage” that has been part of the zeitgeist since 2001 when the Bugaboo Frog was invented. Ten years later, Bugaboo is about to release the Donkey – a $1500 double wide! – and anti-stroller sentiment rages on in cities across America. Especially New York.
I asked Miller why it “pisses her right off” to see kids that she deems “too big for stroller” being pushed by their parents. Here’s what she told me: Continue reading »
Men who choose not to have kids face social challenges
Baby lust is popularly imagined to be the domain of women: we want babies, we’re supposed to want babies. Babies, babies, babies.
Or we don’t. About 20 percent of women never give birth. That includes women who struggle to conceive and cannot, and it includes adoptive mothers and stepparents. But it also takes into account the minority of women who choose never to have children. These women face often substantial pressure from family, partners and friends. Choosing to be childfree isn’t an easy path for a woman who doesn’t want to be a mom.
It’s not so easy for men, either, writes Ted Cox at the Good Men Project. Apparently guys face a lot of the same social pressure to procreate that women do. Their parents nag them for grandbabies. Their girlfriends nag them for babies. Everyone expects them to become dads.
Many start out not wanting kids and later fold under pressure. Or grow up and discover they really do want children. Ted Cox took the permanent way out. At 28, he had a vasectomy.
American women loves to import trends from Europe. We eat up European fashion, parenting styles, and cute modular furniture. Here’s another one: not having kids.
The birth rate in most of Europe has been dropping for decades. No EU country presently has a high enough birth rate to sustain their population. America has generally bucked this trend, but the tide may be shifting.
Nearly one in five American women in her 40s has no biological kids, a new study shows. That’s double the number from the 1970s, when only one in ten women made it to her forties without giving birth.
What’s going on there?
Recently a commenter asserted that raising a child is identical to raising a dog. “Both can be encouraged to good behavior through rewards and discouraged from bad behavior through punishment.” “Both demand enthusiastic praise and consistant (sic) (non-angry) discipline.” “Just like a dog, you must put a plastic cone on a child’s head to keep them from chewing on their butt.” Okay, I made that last one up. Or did I?
Many took umbrage with the commenter’s remarks, but I (always the scientist) decided to put them to the test. Over a weekend I pitted my three-year-old against our 1 ½ year old border collie to once and for all resolve the question: who is smarter, a toddler or a dog? Here are the competitors.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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