The GLOW actress is refreshingly frank about her desire to stay child-free. Hurrah for that!
If you’re a woman in your late 20s or early- to mid-30s, the question is – unfortunately – inevitable. “So, when are you going to have kids?”
It’s an insensitive thing to ask, not least because it’s impossible to know what an individual or couple is going through behind closed doors. They might be struggling with fertility issues, or they might have experienced miscarriage. Alternatively, they might just not be interested in becoming parents – in which case, the leading nature of the question is liable to make them feel forced into a conversation they don’t necessarily want to have.
And why might they not want to have that conversation? Because there’s still a frustrating amount of stigma around women who say, categorically, that they don’t want kids. All too often, that disclosure is greeted with a sort of wry disbelief. “You’ll change your mind in a few years,” people say, knowingly. “Just wait until your friends start getting pregnant!”
All of this makes it decidedly refreshing when a woman in the public eye states clearly and firmly that she’s made up her mind, and nope – she won’t be having kids.
In a new interview, GLOW star Alison Brie explains her decision to stay child-free, joking that she already feels like a parent to the cats she shares with husband Dave Franco, adding that she thinks she would find motherhood too “stressful”.
“I don’t really want to have kids,” Brie, 35, told The Sunday Times Magazine. “It’s great because I don’t worry about when I should get pregnant – between seasons, while we’re shooting the show – I don’t think about it every day.
“It would be nice, but I think of all the things that would be so stressful,” she continued. “I think about how much we’re involved in our cats’ lives. Oh my god, if it was a child!”
Describing her relationship with Franco, who she married last March after five years of dating, the actress said: “We spend time together at night. We just like to hang out. [He’s a] a really supportive partner in my life and [I know] that he loves me no matter what. I’ve found my person.”
Actress Tracee Ellis Ross recently noted that not all child-free women make a conscious choice not to have kids, or to prioritise a career over a family. That’s absolutely true – but it’s equally heartening to hear from a woman who knows that motherhood isn’t for her, and feels comfortable speaking openly about her decision.
One day, we hope we’ll get to a point where women aren’t quizzed about whether or not they’ll choose to procreate. But in the meantime, Brie’s light-hearted but firm response is one to take inspiration from.
Images: Getty Images
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