Childfree by Choice
The Movement Redefining Family and Creating a New Age of Independence
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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MacLeod Andrews
About this listen
From Dr. Amy Blackstone, childfree woman, co-creator of the blog we're {not} having a baby, and nationally recognized expert on the childfree choice, comes a definitive investigation into the history and current growing movement of adults choosing to forgo parenthood: what it means for our society, economy, environment, perceived gender roles, and legacies, and how understanding and supporting all types of families can lead to positive outcomes for parents, non-parents, and children alike.
As a childfree woman, Dr. Amy Blackstone is no stranger to a wide range of negative responses when she informs people she doesn't have - nor does she want - kids: confused looks, patronizing quips, thinly veiled pity, even outright scorn and condemnation. But she is not alone in opting out when it comes to children. More people than ever are choosing to forgo parenthood, and openly discussing a choice that's still often perceived as taboo. Yet this choice, and its effects personally and culturally, are still often misunderstood.
Amy Blackstone, a professor of sociology, has been studying the childfree choice since 2008, a choice she and her husband had already confidently and happily made. Using her own and others' research as well as her personal experience, Blackstone delves into the childfree movement from its conception to today, exploring gender, race, sexual orientation, politics, environmentalism, and feminism, as she strips away the misconceptions surrounding non-parents and reveals the still radical notion that support of the childfree can lead to better lives and societies for all.
©2019 Dr. Amy Blackstone (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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More than 1,000 extraordinary Americans share their stories and the wisdom they have gained on living, loving, and finding happiness. After a chance encounter with an extraordinary 90-year-old woman, renowned gerontologist Karl Pillemer began to wonder what older people know about life that the rest of us don't. His quest led him to interview more than one thousand Americans over the age of 65 to seek their counsel on all the big issues- children, marriage, money, career, aging.
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Solid advice, however memory may bias it
- By Glenn on 10-08-12
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A Strange Stirring
- 'The Feminine Mystique' and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Diane Cardea
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Based on exhaustive research and interviews, and challenging both conservative and liberal myths about Friedan, A Strange Stirring brilliantly illuminates how a generation of women came to realize that their dissatisfaction with domestic life didn’t reflect their personal weakness but rather a social and political injustice.
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Good histroy and well written
- By Hannah Lasher on 06-18-16
By: Stephanie Coontz
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Ready or Not
- Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World
- By: Madeline Levine
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Ready or Not explores how today’s parenting techniques and our myopic educational system are failing to prepare children for their certain-to-be-uncertain future - and how we can reverse course to ensure their lasting adaptability, resilience, health, and happiness.
By: Madeline Levine
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The Longevity Project
- Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study
- By: Howard S. Friedman, Leslie R. Martin
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For years we have been told to make lists and obsessively monitor when we’re angry, what we eat, how much we worry, and how often we go to the gym. So why isn’t everyone healthy? Now based on the most extensive study of long life ever conducted The Longevity Project reveals what really matters across the long run—the personality traits, relationships, experiences, and career paths that naturally keep you vital.
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Good info to know about
- By Thomas on 11-10-11
By: Howard S. Friedman, and others
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Living the Secular Life
- New Answers to Old Questions
- By: Phil Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Andy Paris
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A guidebook for living a life without religion, combining sociological insight and personal inspiration. Over the last 25 years, "no religion" has become the fastest growing religion in the United States. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people have turned away from the traditional faiths of the past and embraced a secular - or nonreligious - life, generating societies vastly less religious than at any other time in human history.
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Anecdotal based approach for understanding
- By Gary on 12-30-14
By: Phil Zuckerman
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The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
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fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
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Coming Apart
- The State of White America, 1960–2010
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.
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Brilliant & Flawed
- By Douglas C. Bates on 05-15-12
By: Charles Murray
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The Sibling Effect
- What the Bonds among Brothers and Sisters Reveal about Us
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters - not parents, not children, not friends. From the time we - and they - are born, our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away.
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This is the only book I never finished
- By Rob on 06-25-12
By: Jeffrey Kluger
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Couples That Work
- How Dual-Career Couples Can Thrive in Love and Work
- By: Jennifer Petriglieri
- Narrated by: Jennifer Petriglieri
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In Couples That Work, INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri rejects conventional one-size-fits-all solutions and instead focuses on how dual-career couples can tackle and resolve the challenges they face throughout their lives - together. She identifies three key phases of exploration and personal growth in every couple's work-life journey, showing how partners must navigate these together to strengthen their bond.
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The Feminine Mystique
- By: Betty Friedan
- Narrated by: Parker Posey
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The book that changed the consciousness of a country - and the world. Landmark, groundbreaking, classic - these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined "the problem that has no name", that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since.
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A landmark book of its time and relevant now
- By Anthony on 01-23-15
By: Betty Friedan
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To Have and to Hold
- Motherhood, Marriage, and the Modern Dilemma
- By: Molly Millwood
- Narrated by: Molly Millwood
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A clinical psychologist’s exploration of the modern dilemmas women face in the wake of new motherhood. When Molly Millwood became a mother, she was fully prepared for what she would gain: an adorable baby boy; hard-won mothering skills; and a messy, chaotic, beautiful life. But what she did not expect was what she would lose: aspects of her identity, a baseline level of happiness, a general sense of well-being.
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Pretty good
- By C Sandell on 03-07-21
By: Molly Millwood
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The Nordic Theory of Everything
- In Search of a Better Life
- By: Anu Partanen
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving to America in 2008, Finnish journalist Anu Partanen quickly went from confident, successful professional to wary, self-doubting mess. She found that navigating the basics of everyday life - from buying a cell phone and filing taxes to education and childcare - was much more complicated and stressful than anything she encountered in her homeland. At first she attributed her crippling anxiety to the difficulty of adapting to a freewheeling new culture. But as she got to know Americans better, she discovered they shared her deep apprehension.
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A non-radical perspective on two societies
- By kwdayboise (Kim Day) on 06-20-17
By: Anu Partanen
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What listeners say about Childfree by Choice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A Amann
- 08-10-20
A very interesting book
As a childfree woman I was recommended this book by a friend and it didn’t disappoint. It has a lot of very recent, updated information and gives a lot of perspectives on the childfree life, which is important because there is no such thing as a monolith. All childfree people are not created equal.
Very informative and an easy read. I say read it if you are thinking about it. Lots of good information.
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- atena
- 08-30-22
Great ! I learned a lot!
Enjoyed everything about the book, full of resources and great points about childfree lifestyle. Thanks for the male input at the end. Loved it !
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- Tamiko Shell
- 02-09-21
Cheers for the child free!
Thanks to Amy for giving a clear defense (and I hate to use that word) of the choice to be childfree. We are not selfish, we won’t regret it, we don’t hate kids, we are satisfied with our choice!
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- Clark Buckner
- 09-10-22
Fabulous read for those wanting a childfree life
Anyone else who knows they want to live childfree, this book is great. I highly recommend!
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-16-20
Could not stop listening
I am currently 28, I will be 29 next month, and I am getting married next year. With some of my friends already have a kid or two... it starts to weigh on your mind. Should I have kids too? Wouldn’t it be fun to be a parent? Or am I going to hate my life and regret ever having them? This book has so many great viewpoints and brings up a lot of things I have thought in the past but having someone else say them too made me feel better. If you’re interested in this topic, I would download this in a heartbeat. I literally couldn’t stop listening and I finished in two days.
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- My 2 Cents
- 07-24-23
Boring
I found this book to be repetitive and uninteresting. There's nothing in here that I haven't heard before.
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- jaim_rouff
- 06-29-22
Meh....
As someone who would identify as a "fence sitter" when it comes to having children, I wanted to learn more about childfree living. Overall, this book brought up some really good points about being childfree, however, it was often very slow and I really struggled to finish it. I almost stopped listening after Dr. Blackstone spent a large amount of time making the case that childfree people do not hate children. I'm a firm believer there is nothing wrong with choosing to be childfree because you dislike children. This book was interesting, but overall okay.
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