Being in my forty-first year, I can finally start relaxing about the whole ‘motherhood question’. I am glad to say that for the most part, people have stopped asking me if and when I am going to have children. I am a happily-married (13+ years!) woman who consciously decided not to be a mother and I feel that this has been a wonderful decision and don’t feel any regret whatsoever. However, I didn’t always feel this peaceful about the whole thing. Since I met my husband when I was 27, I had a number of years to reproduce and felt a lot of confusion and angst about the whole thing. Add to that the fact that my body sometimes wanted children (those hormones are tricky little critters!), I really had to ask myself some deep questions about whether motherhood was my path or not.
Luckily, at that time, my dear friend and author/filmmaker, Maryanne Pope was going through a similar process and actually made a film tackling this very issue called, “Whatever Floats Your Boat”. Maryanne is offering this powerful, eye-opening, and thought-provoking documentary free to all who are interested. You can watch it here.
Also, check out this 20-minute facilitated discussion on the motherhood question.
If you are in the childbearing years and are weighing your options re: motherhood, I strongly suggest you watch these videos. They are honest and give you a variety of perspectives on motherhood which may be helpful in your decision-making process.
