This week I was told that because I was childfree, I was a cancer on society and people like me are everything that is wrong with the planet. (jaw drop). Yes, that is verbatim.
Let me share the backstory and explain more.
There are elections happening all over the world and currently, where I live in Brisbane Australia we have a State Election looming.
As we know people get very vocal and passionate about their politics and often on social media people don’t actually read the posts and comments correctly – they just react.
We live in a very reactionary society and working in the digital space I fully understand the mechanics of social media and the negative impacts it has on the world.
Despite this, I don’t think I was fully prepared for the level of nastiness I got about a comment I made that was untraditional to say the least. Although I must say I was not a wallflower in this conversation and laughed as I read the comments because they were so unbelievably ridiculous.
Let me explain the context. One of the politicians running for Premier of QLD shared a post on Facebook and her comments were about how she wouldn’t be able to it without her family. What made this worse is knowing that the current Premier is childfree and single so it was blatantly shaming her for her life choice and the tone was that she was superior because she had a traditional family.
That did not sit well with me at all and being the outspoken childfree advocate that I am,
I made a comment that having kids is irrelevant to her ability to do her job. One has nothing to do with the other!
Well, it was like waving a red flag to a bull. I was smashed with people’s reactions and obviously hit a nerve. I do not believe that everyone should agree with me, nor was I trying to change opinion or stand up for one political party over the other. I simply made a simple comment which I stand by “being a parent has no relevance to your ability to do a job”
As usual, on social media, people jump to conclusions so knowing nothing about me they simply attacked.
Here are some of the comments I received….(be prepared, Facebook really brings out the best in people)
“You are a sad girl with a sad life and everyone should strive for a family”
“You need a life”
“Family is the root of and core of civilisation”
“You are a leftist, socialist and my anti-family unit agenda should not fed into society”
“What about full term abortion, if that was happening years ago would you be her to have this conversation with me” (this had nothing to do with the post at all, this guy was just a dick)
“a Leader with a family is more compassionate and understanding and less prone to make heartless rules and regulations”
“Functioning families make for a functioning society”
“You are wrong just as Gillard (former Australian prime minister that didn’t have kids) discovered”
“You are everything that is going wrong with the planet”
“You are like a cancer in society”
How would you feel if someone made the comments to you or someone you loved?
This is why we need to be vocal about our choice to be childfree.
This is why we need more education in society about being childfree in order to stop the stereotypes
This is why we need to push back on the negative, disrespectful and hurtful comments
This is why we need to challenge traditional thinking
This is why need Childfree Magazine to be a reality
Wow people are horrible! I love and respect what you’re doing! My partner can’t have kids and I’ve always wanted to be childfree but I never thought I could avoid it without sacrificing relationships. But now I’m lucky enough I can mostly relax into that view. I felt the pressure immensely before meeting him and I still have moments but now we field the questions together. We get horrendous remarks back and so many attempts at convincing us even though he.literally.CANNOT have children . So we’ve started to just say “the bloodline ends with me” very dramatically and walking away from the rude people. We are grateful everyday for the life we have. We have no problem with people choosing their own life paths, why do people think they can butt into our life choices? Again, you’re amazing! Thank you for what you’re doing!