I listened to Jody Day's "Childless Elderwomen" conversations. Both are just brilliant and I am already looking forward to the next one:
https://gateway-women.com/childless-elderwomen/
There are many parts that touched me, this is one of those:
"Going back to those women
in their thirties and forties - that’s one of the things I would say to
them is because it blindsided me, and many of the women that are in my
online community. We talk about it and write about it all the time. This
is my own theory and okay, maybe this'll be part of my 500 words -
about ‘getting your girlfriends back’ - when their children go off to
college, suddenly they have time for you again, they have a little bit
of free money to go to the movies again.
You get your girlfriends
back and then, just as you settle into that comfort, the grandchildren
arrive and you lose them all over again. The difference is that now
you're in your forties and you didn't see it coming, and you can offer,
“Oh, I'll go with you with your grandchildren,” but it's exactly like
it was in your thirties, you just got more grey hair - they don't really
want you around, the grandchildren came. And when you do get your
girlfriend alone, all she wants to talk about are the grandchildren.
That's
one of the things I am going to say real quick again about our
conferences at The NotMom summits - women kept saying to me that they
never realized that in their private real lives at home, when another
woman would pull out their wallet, they would sort of cringe up because
they’d anticipate being shown their kids or their grandkids. But for
those three days, people were whipping out their wallets or their phones
and were showing pictures of their gardens and their dogs and their
cats!
It really showed all of us that much like ... I'm sorry, I
think it was Jackie said, is that once you find other people who are
more like you, you can put your shoulders back down and feel not just
accepted, but seen. .Because without grandchildren, and since we are
heading to a place where grey hair makes you invisible. Now you get with
your girlfriends and you're invisible again because you don't have any little people to show pictures of."
by Karen Malone Wright
What I loved the most is the energy, love, wisdom, joy and humour that the women had. I do hope I will be as cool in 20 years!
****************
I decided that from now on most of my posts will be accompanied by a photo that I took lately. My husband's dog wasn't sure what I was doing, so this is his contribution to taking photo :)