This week isn't about one group, but about lots of groups and people coming together to share a common theme. We have other awareness weeks - Infertility Awareness and Miscarriage Awareness too, and WOW. Why do we need another? Well, why can't we have another? Let's get talking. #worldchildlessweek
Read MoreWorld Childless Week: Worthy
One quote that I return to often is this one. “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris.
Read MoreWorld Childless Week. Ouch, in response to comments that hurt.
It’s a reaction that I experience a lot. In my research and continued work with Walk In Our Shoes, Childless Hour and Walking Forwards Inspiration Group I hear of many irritations with people who try to fix by making suggestions. I’ve been told to adopt, try surrogacy, offered eggs and relax to help me find peace. Silence is, for me, probably the worst response because it feels like a shared discomfort that can make me question the validity of my feelings.
I absolutely know, that until I went on this journey and experienced miscarriages and failed IVF, that I too would have not known what to say.
Read MoreWorld Childless Week. Dealing with invites to baby showers and other events
I often try to put myself on the other side. If someone came up to me, some fifteen years ago (for that’s how long my journey has been), and said I can’t have children what would I have said? How could I have been kinder to that person? Would I have fixed them? Underestimated the pain and how would I have known what to do? I’m midway through a manuscript on this very subject and talking to parents and involuntary childless has been enlightening. It helps to just walk in their shoes, as we ask them to walk in ours.
Read MoreWorld Childless Week
As part of World Childless Week, the team is arranging for a series of Zoom chats to be recorded about the insensitive comments that the childless-not-by-choice frequently have to deal with. Can you help us?
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