Celebrating childfree mentors on Mothers Day. Happy Non Mothers Day.
You may not have a Mom, you may not want to be a Mom, you may have had a bad Mom but had many other women play a mentoring role for you in your formative years. So here’s to celebrating some of them. A kind of celebrating Mother’s day for non Moms.
To quote from Amy Blackstone’s new book Childfree By Choice, “In a survey of 1,000 non mothers, marketing firm DeVries found that children- including nieces and nephews and the children of friends- play an active role in the lives of 80 % of women who don’t have children of their own”
So from celebrity Aunties, to famous heros, to pioneers, to poets, to TV stars we applaud these women who aren’t afraid of owning their childfree, or childless status and have been ambassadors for many women that follow them.
So let’s celebrate some of them….here are fifteen of mine.
- Sandra Oh…..she’s loud and proud about her Aunty childfree status.
“I have an extremely fulfilling life as an aunt not only to my nieces and nephews but a lot of my friends children aswell”
Marie Claire May 2019
2. Dian Fossey — conservationist
Dian Fossey was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her 1985 murder. Joy Adamson, was also a childfree naturalist, artist and author. Her book, Born Free, describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa.
3. Julia Gillard — ex prime minister of Australia
“I’m kind of full of admiration for women who can mix it together, working and having kids, but I’m not sure I could’ve. There’s something in me that’s focused and single-minded and if I was going to do that, I’m not sure I could have done this.” Mama Mia, November 2016
4. Jane Austen — author. A more recent author Elizabeth Gilbert writes on her blog, May 2014 “Now, listen — if you put a baby in front of me, rest assured: that baby is going to get cuddled, spoiled and adored. But even as I’m loving on that beautiful infant, I know in my heart: This is not my destiny. It never was.”
5. Joan of Arc — military hero
…nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans”, is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.
6–8. Sarah Silverman, Ellen and Betty White — comediennes
“No, I’ve never regretted [having children]. I’m so compulsive about stuff. I know that if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would’ve been my whole focus. But I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career and I don’t think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both.” — Betty White, CBS Sunday Morning, May 2011
9. Joan Jett — musician. Jett told Rolling Stone in 2015 that she had no regrets about the way her life turned out:
“As I grew up, I thought about what [having kids] would mean…But I was too focused on my own situation. If you want to call that selfish, fine. But at least I know it. I have family.”
10. Ava Duvernay — As a filmmaker with my own film To Kid Or Not To Kid about deciding to live childfree. I had to include a filmmaker and one that I can really relate to.
“I don’t have children. I don’t have children by choice. I always said that my films are my children. You know, I put my blood into them. It’s really what has my name on it. It’s what I’ll leave behind in the world and so to be able to make something specifically for kids today, something that I hope endures for kids, for a long time to come was very emotional to me.” -Ava Duvernay, This Worthey Life, May 2018
11. Dolly Parton — singer“I often think, it just wasn’t meant for me to have kids so everybody’s kids can be mine.” — People Country, May 201
12. Margaretta Forten - Anti-Slavery Activist
13. Florence Nightingale - Founder of Modern Nursing
14. Queen Elizabeth The First-I mean just a Queen of England
15. Oprah Winfrey — she really does deserve the last word. And which Queen do you choose Oprah or Queen Elizabeth the first….will Oprah be our next president one day?
“If I had kids, my kids would hate me … They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them.” — Oprah Winfrey, The Hollywood Reporter, December 2013
From Maxine Trump — the director of the new childfree film To Kid or Not To Kid, out later this year.
