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Rating: 
Summary: A connection was felt
Review: A very thought-provoking book examining women who are childless-by-choice. As someone who has always known that I will not be having children, this book offered insight and support for a decision that is often met with discrimination.Kasey Hamner, author of "Whose Child?: An Adoptee's Healing Journey from Relinquishment through Reunion and Beyond."
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and Informative!
Review: I am 34 years old, and have been happily married to a wonderful man for the past year and a half. My husband and I have not yet made our final decision as to whether or not we'll have kids...but we are certainly leaning in the direction of perhaps choosing not to raise a family of our own. Reading this book was very comforting in that it affirmed that I'm not weird, strange or missing some sort of "womanly gene" because I don't want to have a baby right now...or maybe not ever. Like many of the women in this book, I am blessed to have a lot of great kids in my life...my friends children, plus 14 nieces and nephews that I "inherited" when I got married. I enjoy my time with them very much, yet do not feel any strong desire to go through pregnancy, childbirth, and the lifetime commitment it takes to parent a child to adulthood. One of the greatest messages of this book is that a woman who chooses not to be a parent can still be an important and loving influence in the lives of many kids around her. I would highly recommend this book to any woman who is seriously weighing the options in regards to having kids. This book has been invaluable to me as I go through the process of deciding "to parent, or not to parent." Whatever my final decision, it gave me a good feeling to know that there are many women out there who are extremely happy with their decision to remain child free.
Rating:
Summary: Just the book I needed!
Review: I enjoyed reading the stories of the women featured in this book. The author brings together a group of women from all walks of life and gives the reader a good look at what life is like without children.
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Summary: great new look at why women don't have kids
Review: It was awesome to read this book for a reason that took a while to bubble up from my brain. I'm SICK AND TIRED of hearing from people who don't want kids purely because they are environmentally conscious or are concerned about overpopulation. I'm both of those things, but to be honest, that's not why I don't want kids. I don't want kids because I just don't want kids. It was great to read many of these portraits and hear people say the same thing. We've moved beyond the purely political reasons for not wanting kids and have started to acknowledge that childfree people don't need to JUSTIFY not wanting them or explain it. Like many of the people in the book, we just don't want them. It was refreshing to read a book about not wanting kids that didn't focus on hectoring from Earth First and overpopulation. Many childfree people, myself included, don't obsess about politics when we think about not having kids. We just don't want them. We don't hate them -- but we just don't want them.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not saving the world. I just don't want kids.
Review: While I enjoyed reading some of the stories of these women who have chosen to live a childfree life, I came away from the book feeling a little worse about my decision not to have children. I sort of felt that if I don't have two Master's degrees, a Ph.d., if I'm not volunteering for every charity (especially children's charities)under the sun, if I haven't traveled the globe, and in short, made some effort at saving the world, then I've wasted my life, and I should be having children. Obviously women do need to justify not having children. It seems like these women feel the need to justify their choice by telling what wonderful things they've done for humanity. It seems as though they feel the need to convince the public that they have done their "duty" by contributing in other ways. Yeah, I have one Master's degree, I like to travel, and I do a little volunteering, but mainly I simply want the freedom to come and go as I please. I want to be able to go out for a nice, relaxing dinner on a Friday night after a long week of work -- dinner, a beer, and some light adult conversation -- a luxury enjoyed only on precious rare occasions by those with children. I'm not saving the world, I just want to be able to enjoy it on my own terms without the responsibility of raising a child.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not saving the world. I just don't want kids.
Review: While I enjoyed reading some of the stories of these women who have chosen to live a childfree life, I came away from the book feeling a little worse about my decision not to have children. I sort of felt that if I don't have two Master's degrees, a Ph.d., if I'm not volunteering for every charity (especially children's charities)under the sun, if I haven't traveled the globe, and in short, made some effort at saving the world, then I've wasted my life, and I should be having children. Obviously women do need to justify not having children. It seems like these women feel the need to justify their choice by telling what wonderful things they've done for humanity. It seems as though they feel the need to convince the public that they have done their "duty" by contributing in other ways. Yeah, I have one Master's degree, I like to travel, and I do a little volunteering, but mainly I simply want the freedom to come and go as I please. I want to be able to go out for a nice, relaxing dinner on a Friday night after a long week of work -- dinner, a beer, and some light adult conversation -- a luxury enjoyed only on precious rare occasions by those with children. I'm not saving the world, I just want to be able to enjoy it on my own terms without the responsibility of raising a child.
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