Brittany Luce

The, the auntie figure or the, just the child free woman more broadly as a person who may have more time to, to joyfully give to other pursuits, but also at least in the United States, as we have,

Not a lot of great structure from our government as far as caretaking is concerned.

When it is time to take care of sick family members or, you know, or when other people do need, let's say, support with child care or with elder care, it is child-free people or child-free women who end up sort of filling in those gaps.

Sarah, what have you noticed?

And you've done a lot of political reporting over the years.

What do you what do you think like child free women specifically symbolize politically?

Well, yeah, I'm glad you bring this up because, you know, through social media, a lot of parents, especially moms, have been able to be transparent about what they go through.

Some people think that this kind of honesty is contributing to people's disinterest in becoming a parent.

Sarah, has that come up in any of the reporting that you did about the declining birth rate?

And what do you think of that framing?

Is this even the right way to think about this, that parents being honest about their experiences is partially to blame for the declining birth rate?

No, I mean, you're bringing up things, Sarah, that I hear all the time from my girlfriends here in the United States.

And I see you nodding very vigorously, Emma.

The things that Sarah's brought up, are those things that you also see playing out in the UK or among your friends?

Well, I mean, you know, I will say, I mean, there is the social media bit of it all, right?

Which is that people are sharing honestly about their experiences.

And I've seen and I know people in my real life who are parents who have gotten a lot out of feeling seen by other people's experiences.

Like just honestly sharing their difficulties so they feel less alone.

I think that feels like a net positive.

But I also just want to say parenting actually really has become, at least in the States, more involved over the years.