Menu
“Friends and family remain delighted, just for different reasons.”
When I met Angélina in 2012, friends and family were delighted. As a woman starting her own ballet school, there was an inevitable excited murmur that she would be “good with kids”. When me married three years later, expectations had been locked in – I was doing well as a director at an antiquarian bookshop in Mayfair, we’d bought a large flat together. Surely kids were next.
Privately however, we had quietly consolidated our position – it wouldn’t be the life for us. We would instead choose to focus on ourselves and each other; pursue goals of seeing the world together; challenge ourselves in our careers and work hard to fortify existing friendships while seeking out new relationships with the likeminded.
It has been only recently that we’ve felt able to be more confident in explaining ourselves. Questions still occur regularly from colleagues and, of course, parents of Angélina’s students. It’s not an unfair assumption, but it’s odd how hard it can be to simply, clearly say that we have other plans in mind without it sounding combative, or critical of those who have chosen to have children.
Approaching eleven years together, we have seen a great deal of the world hand-in-hand. The ballet school is approaching 1,000 students, and outside of the bookshop I have been able to devote time to new ventures in art-book publishing and Pilates. Angélina learns the piano and studies dance at a fellowship level.
Friends and family remain delighted, just for different reasons.
The We are Childfree community is the most empowering childfree space on the internet! Join our private community to make friends, share support and feel inspired to live your best childfree life.
MORE LIKE THIS
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement | 1 year | Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
CookieLawInfoConsent | 1 year | Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. |
elementor | never | This cookie is used by the website's WordPress theme. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time. |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
__cf_bm | 30 minutes | This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. |
aka_debug | session | Vimeo sets this cookie which is essential for the website to play video functionality. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
CONSENT | 2 years | YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data. |
vuid | 2 years | Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
NID | 6 months | NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads. |