jmills01

In spite of a few reservations, I'm giving 4 stars to this compilation. As a woman in her 30s who doesn't have (and doesn't plan to have) children, I was really excited to read this book. I think there is a lot of unfortunate demonization of women who have made this choice, and I welcome anything that normalizes this choice.

That being said, there were a few things that bugged me. I agree with the previous reviewers when I say this: There were entirely too many essays that started out by the author explaining how much they love children... but...... yeah, we shouldn't have to explain that. No one would ask a man to do the same, and so I reject the notion that women should have to declare their love for babies in order to decide not to have them.

Of course, all the women in the book are products of our society, and our society does expect women to say this, so I understand it. I also respect that they aren't all in the same place I am - some express sadness at ending up childless, and that's ok too. I would have liked to have seen a wider variety of viewpoints, as I didn't find anyone I could exactly relate to.

All the women in the book explain themselves well. I am really glad for the opportunity to review this book, and I hope to see more discussion of this topic in the future. I find that it is not something that is easily discussed, although studies show that more and more professional women are opting to be childless.