It's a barrage.
The constant asking, probing, wanting to know,
Do you have children?
Read moreAsked and Answered
“Do you have kids?”
This is a question I’m asked 99% of the time when I meet someone new. It never fails. Maybe the first question is my name. But the second? Almost without exception:
Read more‘Do you have kids?’ – the ‘unanswerable’ question
‘Have you got kids’, it seems like an easy enough question to answer, doesn’t it.
Read moreWhat you don’t see when you ask… Have you got kids?
It’s such a simple question. Casual. Common. Usually asked with no malice. At family gatherings. At work. On dating apps. In GP surgeries. By hairdressers. In places you’d expect, and places you wouldn’t.
Read moreSpeaking up: the voices of the involuntary childless
How often do we think about women who may have wanted children but due to circumstances beyond their control were unable to have them?
Read moreAre You Child-Free?
After finally resolving to claim more control over my life, New year’s eve, 2025 found me and my husband going out to a community gala.
Read moreGoats
“Kids? Goats, you mean?” Is what my facetious self would say to that question, if I was feeling feisty, which I rarely am these days because my hopes and dreams have expired.
Read moreSighing and Speaking
The dinner was delightful. The venue was lovely. The company was pretty good. The conversation was easy.The night was young.
Read moreShame
Read moreIt seeps in quietly
stealthy and unseen.
The dreaded question
“Do you have kids?”, a simple question that’s said.
But oh, how this question fills me with dread.
Read moreDo You Have Kids: Appropriate Question or Do I Just Take Offense?
Somewhere along the way, society deemed it appropriate to start asking total strangers if they had kids.
Read moreThe Things People Say
During my unsuccessful journey to have children, people said and did things that hurt, but I had to remember that they cannot understand what or how it affected me.
Read moreA Tribute to Choices and Things I Could Not Control
At 22 Life is amazing. What career path will I take? Where will I live? What will my contributions to the world be?
Read moreMisunderstood
These are all real comments, questions, statements that have been said to me directly or I’ve overheard indirectly....
Read moreWhat if it wasn’t the dreaded question?
It’s the question we all dread and quite rightly so. It can make us feel inferior, judged, ashamed, scared etc.
Read moreWho deserves to hear my story?
Have you got kids? The question so many childless women and men dread.
Read moreIt's a NO from me
“Have you got kids?” asked the guy who’d come to fix a kitchen cupboard door.
Read moreCNBC Journey of a Sunflower
CNBC….Is it a news channel? An acronym? A label? Feeling that to accept the label makes me feel “less” realizing I feel less already ... .sometimes….
Read moreThe One Question Every Non-Mum Dreads
One of the main things I’ve heard throughout the 15+ years I’ve considered myself to be a lifelong Non-Mum (that is, after I had the crushing news that I would never be a mother followed failed IVF) is that being a childless or childfree woman in society means you’re invisible.
Read moreLetter to my Health Professional and Later Friend Who Aided me in the Question "Have you Got Kids“
Dear Susanna, Please include this letter in my medical file.
Read more