Selfish, shallow, and self-absorbed

3.5 stars rounded up. It starts to get repetitive after a while.

I enjoyed the real unapologetic essays the most, like Over and Out by Geoff Dyer.

New to me were the stories of women who wanted children, sometimes quite badly, early in life, but then changed their minds. There were also stories of women who might have wanted kids but decided not to have them because of lifestyle conflicts or mental illness. Those perspectives were good ones. I have personally never felt this primal urge to have kids, so it’s always a bit mysterious to hear about it.

Overall an interesting read - just got a bit dull by the end.

It was nice to read thoughts on the topic from people of various ages and sexual preferences, males and females. I find it’s hard to have an open conversation about this topic nowadays. The essays are very personal and honest bringing diverse perspectives. I'm glad these voices are out there debunking the prejudice that childless people (especially women) are selfish or that there is something wrong with them. Being a woman who decided at an early age to not pursue motherhood, this was a refreshing read for me.

It's reassuring to read about other people who don't want kids, but it's also an important impulse for people who have/want kids and tell young women "you'll change your mind when you get older". I loved the different approaches to not having kids as well as the different relationships to other peoples' children.
What did confuse me, was the amount of abortions in those essays. I feel like every women should be allowed to decide what happens to her body, but the apparent lack of information on contraceptives in American teens/twenty-somethings is alarming.

I was largely unmoved by most accounts and am incredibly surprised Shriver's condescending, even bizarrely preemptive essay lamenting the decline of "European stock" in the US was even included. It did the overall work a great disservice.

I'm so grateful to Ms. Daum for pulling together the essays in this book. Whether or not to have children is the most consequential decision most people, especially women, will make in their lives, so it has always surprised me that so little is written about it. The variety of perspectives makes it a very worthwhile read.