Child-free zone: why more people are choosing not to be parents.

Through eight humorous essays, Keturah Kendrick chronicles her journey to freedom. She shares the stories of other women who have freed themselves from the narrow definition of what makes a “proper woman.” Spotlighting the cultural bullying that dictates women must become mothers to the expectation that one’s spiritual path follow the traditions of previous generations, Kendrick imagines a world where black women make life choices that center on their needs and desires. She also examines the rising trend of women choosing to remain single and explores how such a choice is the antithesis to the trope of the sorrowful black woman who cannot find a man to grant her the prize of legal partnership. A mixture of memoir and cultural critique, No Thanks uses wit and insight to paint a picture of the twenty-first-century black woman who has unchained herself from what she is supposed to be. A black woman who has given herself permission to be whomever she wants to be.

There are many books on infertility, and on being childfree. Childfree After Infertility: Moving from Childlessness to a Joyous Life puts the two together, focusing solely on the formerly infertile, and how they have created happy, childfree lives. Including the stories of many who have made this transition, the book shows the infertile man or woman that it is possible to put infertility aside, and choose to live childfree, not childless. The book's upbeat tone leads the reader through what can be a difficult transition with grace and humour. Infertility can be devastating, affecting all facets of life. Readers of Childfree After Infertility will learn how their infertility has affected their lives, and how choosing to release their infertility and become childfree can open up a vast array of possibilities and opportunities that might never have existed had they remained childless.

What, No Baby? takes us on a journey into the lives of contemporary women who plan to have it all - marriage, motherhood and work - yet have been derailed by reluctant men, insatiably demanding jobs and ever-climbing expectations of what it takes to be a 'good' mother.The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts that 25% of Australian women who are currently in their reproductive years will never have children. Yet respected researcher and ethicist Leslie Cannold argues that women want to mother as much as they ever did. What has changed is their willingness to sacrifice eveything they've built - everything they are - to do so. Drawing on demographic data, social research and insights gained from interviews with women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Cannold shows that the easier society makes it for women to combine parenthood and paid work, the closer women get to having the number of children they want.At the end of the 21st century, it is women's freedom to mother that is most at risk. Guaranteed to reshape the current debate around declining fertility, What, No Baby? is a must-read for everyone concerned about Australia's fertility decline and for women who want to better understand - and to solve - the social problems keeping them from fulfilling lives in which children play a part

You don't need to be a professional designer or a feng shui expert in order to have a beautiful, comfortable home. Feng Shui That Makes Sense takes you step-by-step through the process of using feng shui principles to create a home that will please your eye, relax your body, inspire your mind, and lift your spirit.After reading this book, you will be able to: • Easily create a home of beauty, harmony, and comfort • Learn basic feng shui principles that work every time in every space • Improve the look and feel of any room in your home • Discover the origins of popular feng shui myths and misunderstandings • Enhance the areas of your home relating to Love, Money, Health, Family, and more • Apply feng shui principles to your landscape and garden • Integrate nature and natural materials into your living space • Clear your home of unwanted energy • Create a home that nurtures and inspires you physically, mentally, and spiritually • Understand how and why your environment affects you the way it does

Childfree across the Disciplines: Academic and Activist Perspectives on Not Choosing Children focuses on the relationship between childfreedom, social ideologies, and community activism. The authors ask (and frequently answer) the question: how do childfree people negotiate their subjectivity in a changing demographic, economic, media-saturated cultural landscape?

How can women live fully? If autonomy is critical for humans, why do women have little or no choice vis-à-vis motherhood? Do women know they have a choice, if they do? How 'free' are these choices in a context where the self is socially mired and deeply enmeshed into the familial? What are implications of motherhood on how human relatedness and belonging are defined? These questions underlie Amrita Nandy's remarkable research on motherhood as an institution, one that conflates 'woman' with 'mother' and 'personal' with 'political'. As the bedrock of human survival and an unchallenged norm of 'normal' female lives, motherhood expects and even compels women to be mothers—symbolic and corporeal. Even though the ideology of pronatalism and motherhood reinforce reproductive technology and vice versa, the care work of mothering suffers political neglect and economic devaluation. However, motherhood (and non-motherhood) is not just physiological. As the pivot to a web of heteronormative institutions (such as marriage and the family), motherhood bears an overwhelming and decisive influence on women's lives. Against the weight of traditional and contemporary histories, socio-political discourse and policies, this study explores how women, as embodiments of multiple identities, could live stigma-free, 'authentic' lives without having to abandon reproductive 'self'-determination. Published by Zubaan.

Stephen Lacey is quite possibly the most neurotic human being on the planet. A bundle of depression, anxiety and hives, he wonders whether he's cut out to be a father. In fact, he's not even sure he likes children. Henry Loves Jazz is a fly-on-the-wall account of what happens when Henry, his first-born child, comes home: the sleepless nights, exploding eco-nappies, celebrity chef cookbooks, black jellybeans and giant Mexican tarantulas. Henry Loves Jazz is not just about those first months of coping with a baby at forty-three, but the author's journey from a childless existence to the dagdom of parenthood. Along the way, he questions everything he knows about his own upbringing and his relationship with his parents and his long-suffering wife. He also discovers a love so deep, he can't see the bottom.

Statistics maven Cheryl Russell--editorial director of "New Strategist Publications"--offers a fast-paced adventure in trend spotting, separates facts from fantasy, and applies a hefty dose of common sense to provide a deeper understanding of the processes at work in American society.

Describes symptoms of emotional problems divorce may cause in children andxplains how divorced parents can help their children adjust.