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World Childless Week is approaching, supposed to raise awareness of those childless not by choice.

In my head, I was planning a post exploring my experience of childlessness, infertility, and adoption.

Visit the official website, and you’d get the distinct impression that this is a woman’s issue alone, which barely impacts men at all.

However, that intention to write of the trauma of childlessness has been knocked off course by our present reality.

Years ago, we yearned to raise a family of our own, but in the face of adolescent angst, we now wonder if we’re cut out for it at all.

“How selfish!” one childless not by choice might retort. And, it’s true, I, too, once rebuked a complaining friend at just such a juncture.

But this is the reality. There is the intense mourning of childlessness. But then there is the ceaseless stress of raising children.

Both are a heavy burden to bear. I think I will park that post for now. My head is a complete mess tonight.