Childless couples

[letsgohooray]

I came to the realisation that 90% of our family life involves or revolves around the dc. Either driving them somewhere or organising something for them or getting stuff for them etc. I genuinely want to know what childless couples do when they are not working? I want a breakdown!!! Weekday evenings and weekends. What do you do with your time? DO you spend it with your dp or away on activities? What do you talk about with each other. It is a whole world I can not imagine.

Child free, to me, just means couples that don’t have there children with them. I have child free weekends away.

Childless, to me, not having no children at all.

Sit at home counting our piles and piles of money

No one minds "childfree" . Some people mind childless, so just always better say childfree as you're much less likely to upset someone. If you care about such things.

To be honest, cuppa, I don't think I ever use the terms except on threads like this anyway.

And you won't know if people are childfree by choice or not on a thread so best to say child free to avoid upsetting anyone who may find it upsetting... Well I would anyway. Up to you!

I’m sure other people on the thread will give their views!

And even if they all say they don't mind childless. Well, they'll still not mind childfree and some people definitely mind childless so to avoid not offending anyone childfree is the way to go. There's no impact on you as the person making the choice... Same number of syllables and letters even!

@Cuppa12345 is this a riddle? Since it makes no sense to me I give up, can you give the answer please

@letsgohooray your first child is 25, at a safe guess your youngest is maybe a young teen. So your telling us in 25 years, that whole time every waking hour is filled with 'busy and important stuff' all revolving round DC. Your oldest has never baby sat to allow you and DH a weekend away, a trip to the movies or an afternoon at the pub? You've never plugged your DC into electronic baby sitters to have a lie in with DH or a takeaway together. Or that your children don't go to bed before you so that you can watch a movie or boxset on the sofa? That you don't talk about topics that aren't child centric?
Absolutely bonkers .......
I'm desperate for a child, but if it means I need to lose any form of relationship with DH, I'd completely reconsider.

Not the sharpest tool in the toolbox then?

Justwantaneasylifenowplease the OP has already explained that their eldest ones have left home and the youngest is still in primary. Maybe the older ones don't even live in the same city anymore. It's very common these days, especially with 2nd families and the like. So not really bonkers at all. I doubt they mean they don't do anything as a couple. I really get the impression that they mean that they want to know what child free couples do with so much free time. People seem so hostile these days, making stuff up and accusing OPs of so much stuff. I doubt I'll ever start a post. Not worth it.

Childless people have lots of time to spend the money they have saved by not having children.

£50,000 on fertility treatment and no baby - kids are expensive, but so is trying to make them

Terminology wise childless usually denotes involuntary childlessness (whether childless by circumstance or due to infertility), whereas childfree denotes an active choice not to have children

If you're a not-mum in a pro-natalist society your status is described by what you lack. 'Parent' is a word on its own - but a non parent is described specifically by the absence of children.

In the evenings me and my fiancé usually just chill out and watch telly, play some video games and play with the dog. At weekends we usually lie in then take the dog a nice walk, get the groceries, go for lunch/dinner, go to the cinema, do the cleaning and sort out laundry. I'm currently studying part time towards a diploma in Counselling so on Saturday and Sunday mornings I usually get my coursework sorted for the following week of class. My fiancé also has a YouTube gaming channel as a side hustle for extra income besides his full time job.

We love to travel to different countries. We also love weekend breaks near home that we can bring our dog too.

Being childfree isn't for everyone but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

We go to cinema, eat out, travel a lot, go shopping, walks in countryside and beaches
Now and again we grab a grandchild and do pretty much the same with them

I start my day by taking my temperature and plot it on a chart on 2 period tracking apps. Then I pee on an ovulation stick, and record the results in the same apps. I hop in the shower and check the position and openness of my cervix while I also examine my cervical fluid to determine if it’s fertile or not.

Depending on the results of all these checks, I either hound my husband for sex or I don’t. If I do, I say a secret prayer and don’t really think about whether I’m enjoying the sex or not.

After a few days of times sex, I lose interest and pay extremely close attention to every twinge and pinch in my pelvic region. Around the time of my period, I pray every time I wipe that there will be no blood. In the mornings, I pee on yet more sticks, but this time pregnancy tests. Each time they are negative. But inevitably, after work, I pull the tests out of the bin to see if a line magically appeared.

When I get my period, I cry. I sometimes spend the weekend in bed watching Gilmore Girls trying not to think about the fact that I still can’t get pregnant (or stay pregnant) after 6 years.

We do normal stuff. Mon-fri we work full time, once home we have dinner and watch telly, chat, read, use our phones to go online. Now that use lighter nights are here and if we weren’t on lockdown we’d go out walking. At weekends we do the laundry and housework early then go for lunch and maybe take a day trip somewhere or go away overnight.

@Trustingsidekick you poor love. Wishing you all the luck in the world

Wow, just came across this post and it broke my heart. After a long struggle to have children, my husband and I admitted defeat five years ago. The grief and devastation was unbelievable. We have reached a level of acceptance but the pain never really goes away. What really hurts is when people treat us as though our lives mean nothing, that we have all the time and money in the world, that we are lazy, that our lives are empty.
To the person who instigated this thread I say, be thankful for what you have... and don’t use it to beat up on the emotions of others. You are so lucky.
And it absolutely matters how you talk about people who don’t have children. Some people choose to be child free or childless by choice ... and again still do not deserve such derision from you about how they choose to live their own lives. Others like me and my DJ are childless not by choice. I must insist that you get this right in future. You broke my heart today.

And maybe just leave off this sort of subject altogether. Despite your protestations, let’s face it, we all know that this is a dig at others. It’s offensive. Just be grateful that your ovaries worked when you needed them to.

Because what hurts a childless woman more that anything is seeing people who are not grateful for what they have.