Friendship Issues Archives

Poster affixed to telegraph pole: "lost mojo"

Surviving the Childless Weekend Blues

April 10, 2023 Jody Day 0

There, it’s said. Weekends can be absolute hell as a single, childless woman. “They creep up on you,” said one friend recently. Many of us are so busy with work commitments and after-work activities Monday-to-Friday that we can’t wait for the peace and quiet of the weekend in order to recover. And then, when we wake up on Saturday morning to an empty bed, an empty house and an empty weekend, it doesn’t feel relaxing; it feels hideously oppressive. Alternatively, we pack our weekend schedule to the gunnels with activities and appointments only to feel burnt out and resentful and […]

Revolutionizing Your Single Holidays (aka ‘the festive season’), a free GW Masterclass with Jody Day, Shani Silver, Sasha Cagen, Yael Wolfe & Nicola Slawson

December 1, 2022 Jody Day 0

The holiday season, from Halloween right through till New Year’s Eve, can sometimes feel like a special kind of hell for single women without children… but what if they didn’t have to be? What if you could craft your own way to celebrate in a way that works for you? If you’d like to explore this radical thought then watch this amazing webinar, filmed in 2021 with me, Jody Day, and my four arse-kicking, taboo-busting single writers, podcasters, artists, coaches and thinkers for this amazing Gateway Women Masterclass on ‘Revolutionizing the Single Holidays’. Recorded live on Saturday 11th December 2021. […]

[Audio + Transcript] This Mythic Life: The Hagitude Sessions – Episode 5: Dr Sharon Blackie interviews Jody Day [19 September 2022]

September 30, 2022 Jody Day 0

This Mythic Life: The Hagitude Sessions – episode 5 [19 September 2022]. Dr Sharon Blackie, the author of ‘Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life‘ interviews Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women and one of the women interviewed in her book. Click here to listen to the full episode or search ‘This Mythic Life’ wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more about Hagitude – the book, the program and the podcast at: www.hagitude.org FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW Intro 00:19 I’m Dr. Sharon Blackie and I’d like to welcome you to my podcast This Mythic Life. Like all of […]

[Audio + Transcript] The Menstruality Podcast – Episode 54: Finding Hope and Meaning When You’re Childless-not-by-choice with Jody Day [15 September 2022]

September 22, 2022 Jody Day 0

The Menstruality Podcast – Episode 54: Finding Hope and Meaning When You’re Childless-not-by-choice (Jody Day) 15 September 2022. Sophie Jane Hardy from RedSchool.net interviews Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women. Click here to listen to episode or search ‘Menstruality’ wherever you get your podcasts. Full written transcript below. ABSTRACT Jody’s personal journey through grief, denial, hopelessness to real acceptance of her life as a childless woman. The creation of Gateway Women and Jody’s mission to make the world understand childless women, and help women who are childless-not-by-choice to understand themselves. The ‘bingos’ that childless women hear all the time. Preparing yourself to answer […]

‘Childless’: a new radio documentary. Download the podcast and/or watch the live Q&A with the Director, Hilary Fennell [Recording now available]

January 23, 2022 Jody Day 0

TO LISTEN TO THE DOCUMENTARY AS A PODCAST: On the Newstalk.com website: ‘Documentary on Newstalk’: episode ‘Childless’ Apple Podcasts: ‘Documentary on Newstalk’: episode ‘Childless’ Spotify Podcasts: ‘Documentary on Newstalk’: episode ‘Childless’ Hilary Fennell’s website: www.hilaryfennell.com “It’s hard to imagine that there remains a subject so taboo that although shared by one in five women over 45, it is never discussed. That subject is being childless, but not by choice.” Hilary Fennell, programme maker and journalist is one of a growing number of such women in Ireland. In this documentary she explores what it means to be childless in a child-centred […]

‘Finding Community and Connection as a Childless Woman’: a free GW Masterclass with Karin Enfield-de Vries & Sarah Lawrence. [Watch now]

January 15, 2022 Karin Enfield de Vries 0

It’s often the case when you’re childless either through infertility or circumstance that your social circle dwindles as your friends sail away to the motherland… Jody Day, the founder of Gateway Women named this the #FriendshipApocalypse of childlessness and it’s sometimes really hard not to take it personally! Join Karin Enfield-de Vries, GW’s Operations Director, a trainee grief counsellor and the Lead Trainer & Facilaitor for our Reignite Weekend programs, and Sarah Lawrence, a therapeutic counsellor, one-third of the Full Stop Podcast, and also a Licensed GW Reignite Weekend Facilitator, for this free GW Masterclass and learn more about reaching […]

Reflect and Renew: navigating the sometimes tricky ‘twixmas’ week as a childless woman

December 27, 2021 Jody Day 0

Amongst the myriad exhortations to move on from Christmas like you haven’t just survived the toughest day in the childless calendar, and throw yourself into the coming new year with gusto, we often ride roughshod over some of the less glamourous feelings that arise at this time of year. Feelings of loss, sadness, grief, wistfulness, regret and confusion which are so much a part of every life, and so often close to the surface for those of us living the life unexpected. If this resonates with you, I thought you might find this recording of my Reflect & Renew webinar which […]

Watch ‘Solstice Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’: Recorded 21st Dec 2021

December 9, 2021 Jody Day 0

RECORDED LIVE ON ZOOM ON TUESDAY 21ST DECEMBER 2021 Since we first came together for World Childless Week in 2020, the #NomoCrones (nomo = not-mother & crone is not an insult!) have been meeting each solstice and equinox for a series of informal online zoom gatherings called ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen‘. To find out more about our ‘Gateway Elderwomen’ project and to watch previous sessions, click here. To sign up to our mailing list to make sure you don’t miss the session planned for March 2022, click here. December Solstice 2021: ‘Spiritual Malnutrition’ For December 2021’s Solstice Session, we’re […]

Jody Day interviewed by Laura Behnke for ‘The Life Actually Podcast’ on childlessness across the life course; working to deshame ourselves as part of healing; how understand the grief process helps us deal with all of life’s changes and much much more! (Audio + Transcript)

October 14, 2021 Jody Day 0

[October 2021] Jody Day interviewed by Laura Behnke for ‘The Life Actually Podcast‘ in which we discuss, amongst other things: the data around the numbers of childless/free women, and why it’s on the rise; about shame as a powerful tool of social control; about how not having children means you also won’t get to be a grandmother either; about my own unplanned pregnancy and abortion at 20 and how this is a hidden part of many women’s stories, both mothers and childless women; about how our childhood experience of being mothered may influence our later thoughts about becoming mothers ourselves; […]

Jody Day interviewed by Dr Karin on her ‘Love and Life’ Podcast: ‘When You’re Not a Mother, But Wanted to Be’ [Audio & Full Transcript]

September 16, 2021 Jody Day 0

[September 2021] Jody Day, the founder of Gateway Women is here interviewed by Dr. Karin Anderson Abrell for her ‘Love & Life’ Podcast. Karin is the author of ‘Single is the New Black: Don’t Wear White ‘Till It’s Right‘ and her work mainly focuses on the experience of women who are single not by choice. Karin herself is a childless stepmother. In this conversation, as well as discussing World Childless Week 2021, we explore how one of the unintended consequences of second-wave feminism has been an increase in circumstantial childlessness and my frustration that involuntary childlessness is a topic absent […]

If you’ve ever wanted to have a productive conversation about childlessness with your friend, colleague or HR Director and found it too hard, listen to this brilliant interview by Doryn Wallach @It’s Not a Crisis Podcast – and maybe even share it with them? This is bridge-building in action.

July 26, 2021 Jody Day 0

You can listen to the clips above by clicking on them and find the full interview here or by searching ‘It’s Not a Crisis podcast’ wherever you get your podcasts. The full transcript is below. In this interview with Doryn Wallach, who is a mother in her 40s (as are most of her audience) we talk about the challenges of being childless in a world full of parents, how pronatalism operates, about how the whole ‘As a Mother’ thing works against childless/free women, about the difference between childless & childfree, about the complexity of childlessness after abortion, about what NOT […]

About normalizing how hard it can be for parents and non-parents to have the ‘hard conversations’; the deep unconscious roots of society’s discomfort with childless women; the gifts of grief and what envy can teach us… Jody interviewed on the Sara Avant Stover podcast, June 2021

June 21, 2021 Jody Day 0

You can listen to the full interview by following the links here, or search ‘Sara Avant Stover’ wherever you get your podcasts. The full transcript is below. In this interview with author, yogi and feminine spirituality teacher, Sara Avant Stover, we go deep into the experience of involuntary childlessness – both my story and, at a much deeper level, the archetypal ‘stories’ that attach to childless women and perhaps lead to much of some people’s evident (and mostly unconscious) discomfort with us. I also talk about what it will take for us to begin to ‘normalize’ that having honest conversations […]

GW Masterclass – the unique experience of childlessness in Australia and New Zealand (Recording now available)

June 13, 2021 Jody Day 0

For the last decade, Gateway Women has attracted and supported many Australian & Kiwi women who have resonated deeply with our empowering and compassionate approach. Both countries were the first outside the UK to get going with our social meetups (now called ‘Gateway Gatherings’) many of which have kept going online during Covid, with new ones beginning to emerge across Australia and NZ. So it is with great pleasure that Jody Day, (GW’s founder) & Karin Enfield (GW’s Operations Director) would like to introduce you to our new dedicated team to lead and guide the work of Gateway Women in […]

How do we help our friends who are mothers to become ‘mother-allies’ to us? Jody Day interviewed on ‘A Certain Age’ Podcast by Katie Fogarty

May 11, 2021 Jody Day 0

Listen or share the 3-minute clip from the show above. Click here to listen to the full 38-minute interview. See below for a full written transcript below. It was such a pleasure being interviewed by Katie Fogarty for her ‘A Certain Age’ podcast which ‘celebrates life 50+ in all its sexy, smart, funny, fabulous, weird, sometimes unsettling, yet profoundly liberating glory.’ What I appreciated most deeply, apart from Katie’s warmth and humility was her genuine desire, as a mother, to understand more about what it means to be a childless woman, and how to become a better friend and ally to […]

Celebrating the highs and the lows of 10 years of Gateway Women with The Full Stop Podcast [April 2021]

April 10, 2021 Jody Day 0

For Gateway Women’s 10th Anniversary in April 2021, I was thrilled to be interviewed by Berenice, Sarah and Michael of The Full Stop Podcast on what those ten years have been like, what has changed for me, and for the childless community in that time, and what my hopes and dreams are for the next decade. This is a very honest episode in which I reflect on some of the behind-the-scenes challenges of creating Gateway Women, and why turning it into a financially and culturally sustainable organisation that will outlast me is so important to me. You can find the […]

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