I took part in my first live radio interview yesterday about my choice to be childfree.
I was invited by BBC Radio York who wanted to discuss the topic on the back of Farrah Storr’s Daily Mail article. I was nervous (having never done a live radio interview before) and a bit apprehensive about the line of questioning I might face and the response from the listeners. However, it turns out that I shouldn’t have been worried at all.
The host, Jonathan Cowep, was really friendly and put me at ease straight away. He had been plugging the section for some time before my interview and the station had already received loads of supportive texts, emails and calls on the topic before I even went on.
We discussed my reasons behind choosing to be child-free and the common misconceptions around it, as well as the most annoying responses child-free people get; most of which I pulled from responses to a tweet I put out the day before the interview asking for examples (thank you to those who responded!)
The listener feedback was fantastic; every message that came in was fully supportive in the personal choice to remain child-free by choice. It was great to hear from both older child-free people that “had never had any regrets”, and parents alike that said “no-one should feel forced to have children".
After the interview, I shared the link to the radio clip on my personal social media channels. Having only told close friends about the blog, this was the first time I’d made it public to all my friends and family. Again, the response has been brilliant and really supportive.
The producer of the radio show said that it had sparked a conversation about being child-free by choice the previous day, and that despite her and a colleague being child-free by choice and having worked together for a while, they had never discussed it before.
Friends that only found out about the blog yesterday have shared their personal stories with me on the back of me ‘coming out’ as child-free. My fellow child-free friends have thanked me for putting it out there and trying to change the narrative surrounding it. And my mum friends have too; sharing their stories of frustration at people asking “when are you going to have another one?”, “little [insert name here] would love a little brother or sister” and upon yawning at work; “You’re not pregnant again are you?!”.
I really hope that I represented the child-free community well and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the interview. You can listen to it here:
Mrs.T x
What I’m up to this weekend: I was out with some old work friends last night for dinner and drinks (including a few celebratory proseccos following my radio interview!). Today I’m meeting a uni friend for lunch and then having a quiet night in with my husband. Tomorrow, we’ll be prepping meals for the week (Mr.T is on health-kick at the mo) and will be out for our Sunday ritual coffee and cake at some point.
What I’m not up to: Taking pictures of a stuffed owl doing ‘fun things’ for pre-school (but I know someone who is 😉)