Navigating elderhood without motherhood in a time of collapse…
Hello! I’m Jody Day, a psychotherapist, the ‘founder of the childless movement’ at Gateway Women, and the author of Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning and a Fulfilling Future Without Children. And this is Puffin McCool, a rascally terrier puppy who reminds me how joyful life can be.
In my early sixties myself, I write about the shame associated with aging in a female body, rooting out internalized ageism, confronting the terrifying ‘Who’s going to take care of me when I’m old?’ issue, building local communities of care for those aging without children, developing intergenerational relationships, challenging the ‘default caregiver’ narrative and learning how to become good ancestors to the human and more-than-human world around us.
Whatever your age or reproductive identity, we’re aging in a world that is either oblivious or hostile towards those without children (and many also without partners too), and the unique gifts and challenges we face as we age.
So how do we age well together in these unraveling times? I believe it’s by being there for each other in both emotional and practical ways.
Why subscribe?
You’ll get an email when I post a new essay or interview on my Substack, and when registration opens for one of my free Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen webinars. All my content is currently free to access. Paid subscriptions are voluntary, and help me hugely with my ongoing research and project development to support those aging without children.
So why choose a paid subscription?
I believe the work I’m doing (here and elsewhere; all unpaid) is changing the narrative (and will hopefully change the practicalities) of how we organise and live out our old age, whether we’re non-parents or parents.
All subscribers currently gets free access to everything I write and, in the near future, paid subscribers will be first to know of events & offerings I’ll be creating exclusively for them.
Your financial support helps me with my research costs (my book bill alone makes my accountant weep), and the costs of running the Fireside Wisdom webinars, which each cost me a couple of hundred dollars/pounds, without factoring in any of my/our time.
If in the future, should you need a paid subscription to access events/offerings but can’t afford it, message me and I’ll happily comp you a ‘paid’ subscription. Because aging without children is a structural issue too, and what we’re doing here is way more important than capitalism…
Maxed-out on paid subscriptions?
If you’d like to support me but are maxed out on Subscriptions (I get it!) you can leave me a one-off tip at Buy Me A Coffee.
Find me online…
You can find me on ‘Notes’ (Substack’s own social media) as @JodyDay here.
I also host the private Childless Elderwomen subgroup in the Childless Collective Community (where reduced/donation memberships are available if that suits your circumstances better).
You’ll find links to all the rest of my work, including my book Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning & a Fulfilling Future Without Children on my Gateway Women website or via my Linktree.
