Recent years have reminded me so much of how I felt in my twenties: why would I ever bring children into this messed-up world, this roller-coaster into nuclear meltdown, pollution overload, hatred-fuelled future?
But I met a good man. A solid, stolid, gentle man with high personal standards of behaviour. A man completely different to me: different upbringing, different religion, different culture, a man who watched and listened, and learned tolerance and acceptance of difference from being with me and my (to him) bizarre family.
We have sons and daughters. And I see those same high personal standards in our sons. And I have hope for the future.
Dh has strong, affectionate, respectful relations with all our children. He models to our daughters what they should expect from a man, and to our sons how they should behave in society. He is not perfect, nobody is. But that is another thing that it is important to model for our children.
Sadly, one of our sons and one of our daughters are to some degree influenced by trans ideology , fortunately only to the degree that they also struggle with cognitive dissonance. So I still have hope.
Each of us, those here on MNFWR, and those not, like my dh, is one tiny individual standing up against the oppression of misogyny. But we share our strength, we give strength to each other.
What's that saying: Never think you're too small to have an effect - have you ever tried to sleep in a room with a mosquito?
Hold fast MrsTP - you are one of the mosquitoes!