The official Childfree on MN bingo card

[ItsNotRocketSalad]

We have 24 squares to fill. What lines get trotted out on every thread that discusses the child free?

My suggestions:

1. You'll need my children to be your carers when you're old
2. Only parents understand real love
3. Childfree people shouldn't take annual leave in school holidays

A cat person is just a dog person who hasn't met the right dog yet...

<runs for my life>

Thank you - no I do not have five - my husband would divorce me! But I have had five over the years. My first was a Christmas present when I was six years old, I had nagged and nagged for a Sheltie and fortunately my parents gave in.

They were very popular when I was a child but I hardly see any now - I suppose they look hard work with all that fur and I must admit it does go everywhere.😁

Ha! 😛

😆😆😆

My sister has a gorgeous Sheltie who spends so much time at the dog groomers being washed and clipped - no wonder, since they live in hot'n'soggy Queensland! 🥵

I'm so sorry. I misunderstood your post, as did the others. Please accept my apologies @meatbaseddessert

Misty's Dad is from Oz, Mum is from here in NZ. She hates being groomed but it has to be done, otherwise we would drown in dog hair.

It will be no surprise to learn that I hardly ever wear black in the house!

Cute dogs everyone! Here's one of my adopted piggies (there were many in shelters after COVID, mainly due to irresponsible people letting them breed and then dumping them.) I've adopted around 10 over the last 5 years and they get to walk around my living room freely (they never do but they could as the cage is open).

Ooh!

waves across the Tasman

Why are you on Mumsnet

That was a square, not a question 🤣

What a cutie!

Oh, sorry - your post wasn't clear that you were quoting.

Have we had “I may not have designed handbags snd luxury holidays but I don’t care as I get so much joy from my DC” yet?

• Arrrggghhh designer handbags

And not forgetting “everyone needs to be needed. And needs someone to love”

I think we need to put a big note at the start of every new thread. THIS IS THE CHILDFREE MUMSNETTERS BOARD AND THIS THREAD IS FOR CHILDFREE PEOPLE. Or something.

I mean the first quote is bollocks but the 2nd one is true 🤷

...then again, I underestimate how dim some people can be, even with ALL CAPS disclaimers.

And they’re not just dim, but full of righteous indignation!

BINGO

But that will never happen. People will always want children, so why do people who have chosen not to have children need to be told that?

No one has ever said to me ‘oh, you don’t work in a shop? Well if everyone else chose your career path they’d be no one to serve us in a shop’.

No one has ever said to me ‘oh, you don’t work in a shop? Well if everyone else chose your career path they’d be no one to serve us in a shop’.

😆

I hope you're ashamed of yourself Floralcarvings for being responsible for the total collapse of retail across the globe.

It's doing women a massive disservice to say that whether or not we have children is the critical factor in our lives.

Hmm. Well, in a way it is. But I get questions/comments on all of the following on a regular basis:

• How come you’re always having such exotic holidays?
• How do you find the time to exercise every day?
• How can you afford to buy a house and start doing it up at the same time?
• Where do you get the time to worry about Brexit/feminism/whatever?
• Do you really go out EVERY WEEK?
• What do you mean, you’ve never been to a soft play?
• Of course you’ve heard Baby Shark, it’s that one Baybeee Shark dadadada

And guess what the answer to every single one of them is?

And for my part, I find it utterly incomprehensible that other women think that reading a magazine in the bath is the ultimate luxury, because if I want to chill out in peace for a bit I just sit on the sofa without the faff of getting wet. I don’t understand why cliquey groups at the school gates are worth more than a second’s thought, or why you don’t just take the damn phone away and say they can have social media when they’re 20.

These are all very trivial things, and maybe we shouldn’t define our lives by them, but we do. They are the simplest everyday details and they are fundamentally different for mothers and for us.