Childfree over 60

[Catgirl007]

Any other childfree ladies over 60 out there?
How has being childfree shaped your lives and do you have any regrets?

Im 81, and always single other than a very brief marriage in my 20s. I decided early on that living intimately with a man child and bearing his children was not for me. I decided at age 11 that I did not want children and told my parents so. My father told me "You will have what God gives you." That sums up my parents attitude to a woman's place in the world back in the 1950s/1960s. My reply was that I would have what I took for myself in this world. I could not see how having children would serve my interests. I have no wish to be directly responsible for the life of another human being.

Ive done many things that I could not have done if I had DC. I changed career 3 times, including going to uni in my early 40s to requalify. I have lived and worked abroad and travelled solo all around the middle east - places like Afghanistan, Iran and Syria which it is difficult to visit now. I have worked as an independent contractor and run my own business since I ceased working for an employer at age 60.

Now that my health and mobility are beginning to decline I have to think of the future. I do not intend to end my life in some crappy nursing home. The idea of communal living appals me and I would rather cut my throat with a rusty saw. I will take my life at a time of my choosing when I can no longer look after myself. At my age, I have no fear of death.

You have had a fulfilling life.

Well done to you, you certainly are an inspiration.

Thank you for sharing details of your amazing life. Xxx

@Catgirl007you’re on Mumsnet - the very place that is full of complaints and angst and stress about children! Read a few threads on here it might put one off ever having a child! So I think there are plenty of parents who would be happy to tell you all about the drudgery of having kids.
I do have two (in my 40s, I’m 63 now). My sister doesn’t. I think more because she didn’t want that kind of relationship with a man (she’s heterosexual and has had relationships in the past, but does not have a partner) that would lead to children. But I don’t think she has any regrets. Interestingly though she is a psychiatrist who used to specialise in children.
My neighbours are child free. They spend about seven or eight months a year abroad - a week here, a month there, a few days somewhere else. Both can work remotely. They are not English I’m not sure why they are here at all really (and living on a street full of families as there are three primaries within walking distance and they are dead centre of them all). But they couldn’t have done that unless any children went to boarding school. They seem very happy.