The Baby Matrix

The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create A Better World, by Laura Carroll, takes readers through a critical exploration of the way we look at childhood, parenthood, and procreation. Carroll explores the ideology of pronatalism through the framework of The Matrix film (hence the title).

But like Neo’s awakening from the matrix, taking “the red pill” doesn’t just clear away the clouds of blind ideology. There’s work to be done. After deconstructing pronatalists beliefs, Carroll takes readers into a “post-pronatal” future. If we really were to strip away the ideas that a human’s right to have and raise children supersedes the rights, needs, and well-being of children and the world at large… what would happen?

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My Reading of Laura Carroll’s The Baby Matrix

The Baby Matrix will likely cause a few knee-jerk reactions. I like to think I’m pretty progressive when it comes to beliefs about parenthood, child-bearing, and overpopulation. After all, I run a pro-childfree website and online community. But I have to admit, even I found myself shocked by some of Carroll’s arguments. Not because I actually disagreed, but because pro-natal notions are so deeply ingrained in me (and all of us).

I highly recommend reading this book if you’re:

• Childfree
• Concerned about overpopulation
• Interested in children’s welfare
• Curious about the childfree movement

The Baby Matrix is an intellectually and emotionally challenging read. Laura Carroll asks her readers to step outside of their comfort zone and ask themselves difficult—but vital—questions. It’s the kind of book that really pushes you to examine your deeply-held, and sometimes completely subconscious beliefs. Whether or  not you end up agreeing with the author, it’s well worth a read.

Where to Read The Baby Matrix

From July 20 until July 31, 2018, you can enter to win a free, signed copy of The Baby Matrix.

Since I highly recommend reading The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World, it seems only reasonable I provide a way for you to get a copy right now. Just click the link above!

Your Thoughts on The Baby Matrix

Obviously, this is a pretty controversial topic. Some of the ideas discussed in Laura Carroll’s The Baby Matrix might even be a bit surprising within the childfree community. If you’ve read it, please share your thoughts respectfully in the comments below. What surprised you about the book? Which parts did you agree with? What do you hope others will learn by reading it? Let’s start a conversation about this important topic.

Pick up a copy of The Baby Matrix by Laura Carroll today!

Feature image by Jakub Luksch

One of the greatest challenges childfree women and couples face is the feeling of isolation. While it’s true that the internet has helped us connect to other like-minded individuals, that support network could use some bolstering. If you’re looking for information or validation regarding the childfree lifestyle, you’re in luck. I’ve compiled a short list of the top five best books on the topic of being childfree.

Below are five books that will:

• show you how older, childfree people feel
• validate your feelings and beliefs about children/childfree life
• assure you that you’re not selfish
• expose common parental regrets
• did deep into the ideology and idolization of motherhood

Ready? The let’s dive in.

5. Kid Me Not: An anthology of childfree women of the 60s now in their 60s.

The self-righteous warning of, “You’ll regret it when you’re older” falls flat next to this collection of childfree women who are still happily childfree. If you’re not sure about having children, this respectful anthology, edited by Aralyn Hughes, will give you a peak at the seldom looked-at lives of older women without children.

Find out what these women have to say when you read Kid Me Not.

4. The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women

The “Mommy Myth” is just as false, oversold, and harmful as the “Angel in the House” was to Victorian women. Yet modern Westerners are still eagerly seduced by it. Douglas and Michaels deconstruct this set of beliefs and present it plainly for what it is: a harmful, unrealistic ideal that harms mothers as much as the childfree.

See for yourself why this myth harms moms and childfree women alike by reading The Mommy Myth.

3. Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids.

As the tongue-in-cheek title suggests, this collection of essays from various writers is a deeply personal, very self-aware exploration of the decision to remain childfree. If you’re looking for an intimate one-on-one meeting with a childfree mentor, this book is for you.

Listen to the audiobook for Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids today!

(Above is an excerpt from the book read by Blair of the Respectfully Childfree YouTube channel.)

2. Confessions of a Childfree Woman

60 Minutes dealt a severe blow to the childfree by choice movement, as well as Marcia Drut-Davis’ personal life after her edited interview aired. Despite being reviled for the audacious decision to not have children (she even received death threats after the broadcast), Drut-Davis refused to be bullied. This is the story of her life and how it has been shaped both by her decision and by her appearance in that fateful interview.

Read about Marcia’s battle against this age-old stigma in Confessions of a Childfree Woman: A Life Spent Swimming Against the Mainstream.

If you’d like to learn more first, check out my my review here.

1. The Baby Matrix

Laura Carroll’s The Baby Matrix presents the idea that women are designed to be mothers as nothing more than human-constructed ideology. Just as Neo learns to see the matrix for what it really is, so the reader learns to see how the ideological wool has been pulled over our eyes for so long.

Order your copy of The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World

You can also read my full review of The Baby Matrix here.

Have you read any of these books already? Are there any other books on the childfree lifestyle you wish I’d included on this list? Let me know in the comments below!

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