Welcome to my childfree party

It frustrates me that in mainstream US culture, there is no space for the celebration of making the decision to NOT marry or to NEVER have kids. It’s like there are only ways to experience rites of passage which fit a very narrow norm of adulthood and what constitutes “worth celebrating.”

There is so much power and joy in gathering your friends, family, and community to say: “I’ve made a huge life decision!!!! Celebrate with me!!!!” and the acceptable/common formats for adulthood are pretty exclusively baby showers, wedding showers, and weddings. This fact implies that there isn’t euphoria to be found in making the decision to be single forever or be childfree. It’s nice that we do have things like graduations for educational milestones, going away parties when someone embarks on a new career path, and retirement parties which careers can culminate in, but not everyone will do those things either. Feels like there’s a gap for a party of a different type.

Anyway, I know tons of folks have talked about this issue better than I am before me, but it sure would have been nice to get to feel supported by a community in my decision. For now, I’m too broke and too busy and too embarrassed when feeling “put on a stage” to throw myself some kind of special “I ain’t reproducing” party 😆 But maybe someday I just will.