Melanie Notkin

In a new report published last month by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC: ‘Unnatural’, ‘Unwomanly’, ‘Uncreditable’ and ‘Undervalued’: The Significance of Being a Childless Woman in Australian Society, authors Stephanie Rich, Ann Taket, Melissa Graham, Julia Shelley Published studied the experiences of childless women in contemporary Australia. The study revealed five recurring themes: woman = mother; notions of ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’; childlessness as a discrediting attribute; feeling undervalued; and the significance of being childless.

If you were there in the 1990′s when the term “supermodel” became super popular befitting only the most prominent models like Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, then Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss, you knew the name Christy Turlington. Christy was the kind looking one with the kind smile and kind eyes. Christy was all-the-way gorgeous, and you couldn’t imagine her looking older…

With the recent New York Magazine cover story making hoopla out of the growing age of first time moms, a recent study out of the department of human genetics at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, shows that men get too old to have kids sans-risk to their offspring too.

Smitten by Savvy Auntie is the new weekly deals program curated with love by me, Melanie Notkin, exclusively for the Savvy Auntourage!

Why is it that the modern mom can love children and her career but the childless woman can only love her career? In America today, has feminism morphed into mommyism?

I admit I’m guilty of looking in the mirror and feeling grateful that there is not a wrinkle on my 42 year old filler-free face. I am even more thankful for a cluster of monthly zits, a possible sign that some of my more youthful hormones are still functioning…

Are aunts and godmothers under-appreciated?

All reasons this generation of women are not bearing children at the same rate their mothers did are valid. Some young women and just not at a point in their lives where motherhood is choice they’d like to make. Some are ‘fence-sitters,’ not sure about whether or not they want children. Some are childfree by choice. Some are gay and need to take a potentially longer and less traditional route to motherhood. Some are suffering from biological infertility. And some, like me, are what I call “circumstantially infertile.”

I’ve always said that my recently published book, SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids (Morrow/HarperCollins) is more than a book, it’s a movement. The book represents and celebrates the nearly 50 percent of American women who are not moms but who love a child in their life….