The Full Stop

We’re joining by two guests who you’ve met before. Catch up with Ken and Lisa as we talk about step parenting when childless not by choice.

We cover the difficulties of Mother’s Day and daily life. Ken and Lisa talk about society’s perception of being a step parent both within the childless community and outside it. We ask about the problems of language and how that affects the sense of place in a family.

Here’s our guest details

Lisa Kissane is the owner of Silvertongue Copy & Content Writing, a project born of many years experience in sales, marketing and writing for pleasure. She is particularly keen to work with members of the childless and LGBTQ+ communities and offers a free trial in the form of one piece of content (e.g. a blog post, newsletter, web landing page) to business owners who identify as such. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram 

Ken Fenton is an founder member of The Childless Men’s Community and role model to his fellow members. He’s been a guest on our men’s episodes.

We thank Lisa and Ken for their time and words.

We’d like to introduce you to Anastasia MacDonald who many of you may already know from her constant and reassuring presence online. We gather to talk about how the menopause affects us as the childless not by choice community. Is it a relief? A time of mourning and what’s it like on the other side?

Like many of our episodes, we connect our community both as listeners but also as guests and we have a feeling that there will be some interesting collaborations to come. We do love seeing our guests meet and share stories! If you’d prefer to read, you’ll find a transcript below..

Here’s our guest details

Anastasia can be found on Instagram here and the book she mentioned is What Fresh Hell is This? by Heather Corinna (please do buy from an independent book shop if you can) and the podcasts are The Menstruality, and the Hit Play Not Pause podcast.

 

We’d like to introduce you to our guests who are rather marvellous company, as you’ll find out in our 47th episode. Mike Sparks restores vintage electrics (yes, we also through he has a great name!) and teaches water skiing, how this two areas of his life come about? Caroline Stafford sells gorgeous biscuits and she talks about how she came to create a baking business. Also joining us is Vicky House who founded Clem’s Garden which we’ve long loved, and she explains her vision and her boundaries.

Here’s our guest details

Caroline’s The Kitsch Hen bakes gorgeous biscuits which you can order from her website.

Mike Sparks restores vintage electrical items and sells them online.

Vicky can be found in Clem's Garden which is currently taking a rest but you’ll find lots of gorgeous images and their social media photography is a delight.

In this episode we were joined by your words. We were delighted to receive messages from our community which we’ve shared with you. And it was a chance for the three of us to reveal our themes for 2023, ask if you’d like be a guest and a little on how we’ve grown over 2022.

In this episode we were joined by Penny Rabarts from The Childless Wanderer and Elaine Ritchie, who works for the NHS; she provided palliative care during the height of Covid.

More people are childless due to being single than any other reason but it’s not spoken about. Are we in danger of creating bingos in our childless community and how we support each other? These were all questions we put to Elaine and Penny. Both were keen to share their experiences and be open about the triggers that have affected them. It’s an empowering listen. 

Here's the link to the transcript. 

In this episode we were joined by Charlie Bishop, Palo Barker and Steph Penny. Often the wider world can assume that the only reasons we do not have children are failed IVF, failed adoption or didn't try. This narrative excludes many for whom getting pregnant can be life threatening or a hidden illness means one cannot conceive. Charlie, Palo and Steph all spoke about how invisible illnesses can compound and complete the unseen grief of not having children. We also asked them to share the support groups they have founded or are involved with, and resources that have helped them. We thank them all for speaking so honestly and informing us.

Show notes:

MRKH Connect a registered charity founded in 2014 supporting those with MRKH (Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser) Syndrome which affects 1 in 5000 female births leading to the absence of underdevelopment of the uterus, cervix and shortened vagina. MRKH Connect has been involved in numerous research studies on mental health and the psychological impact of MRKH, runs events and aims to Connect those with MRKH together whilst providing valuable resources for the community and the public. Our Guest, Charlie, is the Director of MRKH Connect and also an advocate for MRKH and for the childless community also being part of the Tutum Journal editorial team, a magazine for, and by, childless women. Find out more by following @mrkhconnect across social media, @tutumjournal or email Charlie.

Our guest Palo supports chronic survivors at Chronic Survivors Childless Warriors and myasthenia group Diet and Myasthenia Gravis UK You can also find on the admin teams for Childless Not By Choice-Non-Religious and Childless by Circumstance, Not by Choice

Palo has a private group for Asian childless women and (optionally) chronic condition sufferers. This is a secret/private group by invitation, please contact The Full Stop and we’ll connect you with Palo.

Steph Penny is the author of Surviving Childlessness: Faith and Furbabies, and composer of Angel At My Keyboard. You can find all of Steph’s work on her website.

 

When we met up with Jessica Hepburn for episode 43, two things came to mind. The first is how we met her, which you’ll discover in the recording which was had a time of new starts for all of us and the importance of 43 which Jessica explains to us, and oddly how this is indeed, episode 43!

It’s fair to say that her pursuit of motherhood is just one of many parts of this pond to peak adventurer’s story! Jessica has been on many journeys herself and inspired others; maybe she’ll do that for you as you find out more about struggling well.

How to follow and connect with Jessica

Jessica’s website, and you can follow her on Facebook, and Instagram.

Buy Jessica’s books:

In Pursuit of Motherhood or shop B-Corp at World of Books.

21 Miles

Annie Kirby lives on the south coast of England where she works part-time as a university researcher. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in American Studies. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and broadcast on national radio and she is a winner of the Asham Award for short fiction. Annie is a graduate of the Penguin WriteNow programme.

Annie first appeared on our podcast in episode 2, way back in 2019. In episode 42, she joins us again as The Hollow Sea is released for publication. 

If you enjoy our episodes and like the newsletter, we'd appreciate your support. At the moment, we're keeping our Kofi account open. Just £1 goes a long way to securing the future of the Full Stop podcast, and helping us with the hosting costs and growing our podcast to include transcriptions. You can donate to us via Kofi, with the reassurance that all funds go direct to the podcast. Click here if you'd like to

 

In Episode 41, meet Rob Hutchings, a seasoned endurance athlete and author of Downriver Nomad. In his autobiography, Rob tells tales of his nomadic adventures in triathlon, marathon swimming and sports, navigating hairpin bends, whirlpools and white-water rapids.

We were thrilled when he accepted our invitation to the Full Stop. In this recording, he discusses what compelled him to tackle adventure sports and speaks honestly about his struggles with an alcoholic father and childlessness. It’s a story that will open your eyes to strength, vulnerability and adversity.

You can buy Rob’s book, Downriver Nomad: A Triathlete's Adventures and Adversities into the Rapids on Amazon, in paperback and ebook editions.

In Episode 40, we were honoured to share spacing with Katy Seppi who joined us in early June to talk about the forthcoming Childless Collective Summit. It’s happening again on 14-17th July 2022. Join us as we meet Katy and discuss the event and creating communities for people.