Me And My Tiny Human

This week I'm answering a listener question about one of the most common fears people have when considering solo motherhood - what about companionship??

Q: "I know you said a partner is out of the question but what about companionship? How do you manage to incorporate that? I am 39 and have a few eggs frozen and still feel unsure about so much including if I even want to go down this path on my own. All my friends are married with kids and I just feel people look at me confused."

I hear ya! I feel like confusion was the reaction I got the most when I told people I was going to have a baby solo.

So, in this episode I share how I felt about relationships before becoming a solo mum, how that changed once I made the decision to go it alone, and whether I ever miss having a partner now that I’m deep in the trenches of parenting on my own.

I also reflect on the kind of love I’ve experienced in past relationships vs. the love I feel from my daughter and how it's unlike anything I’ve ever known.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

Today I'm answering a meaty question from Anonymous...

Q: "How much time did you give to considering how your daughter will feel and what she will experience being born into a situation where she will not be raised by and have a relationship with her biological father, and her biological father's side of the family?

She has 50% of her DNA from a stranger. Did you talk to any donor conceived people or adopted people and ask them about their perspectives? How much will you disclose about her biological father's identity to her and others?

I discovered I was a donor conceived (DC) person at 40 years old after completing a DNA test. As a DC person I loathe the term "donor". It's not an organ, it's not even a blood transfusion, a sperm donation results the child assuming 50% of the father's DNA and that is a huge factor in the make up and identity of the child."

This question was brilliant because it really made me think about how I could make sure I'm thinking about this from my daughter's perspective and make sure she has the easiest time possible with this information.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

No question today, just a little observation from my time as a solo parent...the truly unfair notion that you spend most of your days doing absolutely nothing and yet you've never been more tired.

HOW DOES THAT WORK?

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance:

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

In this episode I'm answering a question from Sam...

"How did you go with feeding your kid solids? I'm terrified my daughter is only going to want to eat chicken nuggets."

Oh Sam. I hear you!

This was my greatest fear too.

I get that kids like what they like, and if she only wanted chicken nuggets after I'd introduced her to everything else, there wasn't much I could do about that.

But I was determined to get her to try as many different things as possible so she was aware there are more flavours out there than crumbed chicken.

Unfortunately, I think I may have gone too far 😬

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

Today I'm answering this question from Anonymous...

"I’m currently doing IVF to become a solo mum and while I’m super hopeful and optimistic it will work out, the realities are starting to dawn on me that it may not. And I may have to make peace with that at some point. So I guess my questions are - Did you think about this? Did you have a limit on how many round you would do? How did you handle the IVF rollercoaster once you decided you were ready to be a mum? Do you know anyone who tried without success (because this needs to be normalised as much as solo motherhood imo)?"

I was 42 when I had my daughter so if there was one thing I was definitely across and that was the fact that, at my age, becoming a mum was more unlikely than it was likely.

Every fertility appointment I went to (and there were a lot of them) I was reminded of the statistics.

So I knew, no matter how much I wanted to be a mum, there were absolutely no guarantee it would happen.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

EPISODE CREDITS:

Host: Rachel Corbett

Editing Assistance: Josh Newth

LINKS & OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF: