Childfree Chat - what's everybody up to?

[musixa]

General chat thread for the without children community

Me and blokey are moving soon, both our professional business and our personal flat into one building.

We're f/t self-employed and working literally 7 days a week. The new place has been derelict for years and is a mess from top to toe with no running water or electric and the loo isn't working, dangly wires everywhere, rotting bits of carpet, mold, walls are covered in rotting peeling paper, some windows need replacing etc. but it's a beautiful building from 1677 and will be absolutely gorgeous when it's done up with lighting etc. Thankfully we have a good landlord we rent it from who is helping us out as much as they can.

We're moving our business in first then moving into the attic flat later. In the attic we'll be ripping out the bathroom and turning it into our bedroom and the loo is in the downstairs kitchen so we'll have a shower unit installed there too.

So when we finish work we go home and have dinner then go back to the new place to get things done. We're starting painting tonight after stripping yesterday.

Lots of exciting things coming up!

We have 6 kids .... 1 cat and 5 fish ... so we always tell them where we're going and roughly what time we'll be back!

DH's foosball table just arrived (you know, the toys we can afford sans children). He loves foos and actually won a comp to go play in the US so I'm pleased he's finally treated himself.

Once he's finished staring at that he needs to get on and book a restaurant for tonight. He's been away most of the week so it'll be nice to get out together.

It’s raining heavily where I am, so I’m going to go for a nice rain walk after weeks of it being really hot. Then I’m going to catch up on death in paradise and the popmaster tv show with my husband while we eat chocolate. I know, I know, our lifestyle is very wild and we should calm it down 😂

Very quiet week at work so I had a nice lie-in today then went to buy food for my little birthday party tomorrow. I was hoping we could sit in the garden and drink cocktails but it's rained nonstop for a week, so we'll be in the living room. It'll be the first time my kitten has met other humans so I'm curious to see how he'll react!

We are on holiday in a Cottage on Skye. Weather a bit crap but it's lovely and peaceful and relaxing.

Just logged off for the week (work from home). Just got into my PJs and me and the husband will be having a pizza and watching the new avatar movie 🍕🍿
Lovely to hear of everyone's plans.

Sounds lovely! What’s Skye like? I’ve never been.

We really love it - it's beautiful and atmospheric. The weather is very unpredictable though -;all four seasons in one day. We always pack waterproofs

Morning all!

Very exciting day today - going for a lovely lunch then going to see Take That in Hyde Park.

Mark Owen was my first love and i may scream!

We must be the same age because I adored him, oh the posters I had! I am so jealous! Enjoy :)

I've started my day with a 5k jog, now cleaning the house and chicken coop, will finish painting the office this afternoon while I wait for a builder to visit to quote for a new bathroom, and then off to a lovely Indian restaurant for dinner with DH once he's finished work.

If I can peel myself out of my day-long bath, that is.

I've done 2000 steps this morning just sorting out the bloody cats, and they aren't even our cats!

It is due to rain here all day so we will go to a garden nursery to find more plants or seeds to sow, and then I'll probably do some potting on and tidying up of tomatoes in the polytunnel.

Deciding whether to risk going to a small local hairdresser to get mine cut.

Morning all, I slept in this morning (as a frequent insomniac this is a moment of bliss!) and am now idling on MN before facing up to the tasks of the day. I have been away for a few days last week and have yet to unpack (as I decided getting the garden waste bin full before the council came for the fortnightly collection was clearly much more important).

I am off to a small (early) 4th of July party later at the home of an American friend.

I’m writing a shit student research paper on endometriosis in Southeast Asian women. I’m currently reading a paper from 1995, ‘Epidemiology of endometriosis among parous women’ with this gem: ‘Historically, endometriosis has been described as a condition confined to white middle-aged women belonging to upper socioeconomic strata’ which is sadly true. The description that is - the statement itself is very much untrue. It was also believed to be a ‘career girl’ disease affecting middle class women who prioritised their career over having babies, which I thought was apt for this board. So be warned, ye selfish, childless go-getters.

Working on papers for business, DH is visiting friend and I am planning few beers ib sun later and some great stupid movie.
After clean up🙈

🤦 My sil has endometriosis... The only reason ahe put career ahead of family for a whe was.... The endometriosis ... She is unfortunately in the group where it affects fertility

The description that is - the statement itself is very much untrue. It was also believed to be a ‘career girl’ disease affecting middle class women who prioritised their career over having babies, which I thought was apt for this board. So be warned, ye selfish, childless go-getters.

Slightly OT but disease was always the threat used to discourage women from striving for education or when they tried to break into male dominated preserves like sport. Nothing changes, does it?

Back in the 70s I was working with a woman in her 20s who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She was told by the doctor that what she needed was to get pregnant; because gestating and birthing and then rearing a baby when you have RA is a doddle, apparently.

My sister had endometriosis, she was told in her late teens to have a baby and that would cure it.

That should say has not had, stupid autocarrot

One of my sisters was told that, she actually now has four children AND endometriosis, how many children do you need to have to cure it 🫣

Yeah same for my sister, a couple of kids still has endo

It's nuts isn't it. My mum was fuming, I can't remember if my sister was 16 or 17 but who tells a teenager who is in significant pain that the cure to that pain is unprotected sex and parenthood

I'm not surprised!

I've got endometriosis. A (female) gynecologist once told me I couldn't possibly describe my periods as painful, because I had never given birth and not experienced 'true' pain.

I'm on a couple of endo info/support groups and, without exception, every mother who suffers endometriosis has said that their endo is actually worse pain-wise than their experience of childbirth and very similar to birth cramps, only it goes on for 5-7 days every month and painkillers do nothing.

Being consistently told you don't know tiredness, pain, etc etc simply because you don't have children is not only false, it's offensive.

Being consistently told you don't know tiredness, pain, etc etc simply because you don't have children is not only false, it's offensive

So much this. If I'm in pain I'm in pain, not some 'I'm suffering worse than you' Olympic event.

Oh wow, what a twit that gynae is. She should really consider a different career. Aside from it being a completely stupid and crass comment, I work with women with endometriosis and time and time again I hear that they'd rather have labour pains than their endo pain each month. And for some women the pain is constant!

I don't know what it is about endometriosis and HCPs. It took me years to get diagnosed, having endured referrals to urology, gastroenterology and dietetics and given countless prescriptions for UTIs when I kept telling them I believed it was gynaecological. I didn't even know about endometriosis back then, and the only time I heard it mentioned was when the GP was reeling possible causes of my pain off the top of his head and muttered, 'well it can't be endometriosis because you have the coil'.

Maybe it's just women's health in general. I have a friend who has been having episodes of severe abdominal pain and vomiting. She made an appointment with a (female) ANP who dismissed it as 'normal symptoms of the menopause' and booked her in with a women's health nurse to adjust her HRT dosage. The women's health nurse said it isn't normal at all and has booked her in for an urgent scan.

Whatever it is, it needs to stop. But unfortunately the waiting lists to see a gynaecologist are now 2+ years in many areas with another huge wait for surgery itself.