Review: No Kids by Corinne Maier
Title: No Kids: 40 Good Reasons Not to Have Children
Author: Corinne Maier
Length: 192 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction, Humor
Source: Indigo
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: I saw it in the sale bin and couldn’t NOT get it!
Date Read: 17/03/10
I’ve always said that I don’t want kids. Being single and in your mid-twenties though, no one really takes you seriously. I’ve always been told that I will change my mind. I have always wondered what the obsession is with children, why is it that it is not socially acceptable in our society NOT to want to have them? Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog wrote a great post about this subject about a year ago. Because of that, when I saw this short, humorous book in the sale bin I had to pick it up.
In this book the author lays out 40 reasons not to have children. And the author is a mother herself so she KNOWS, as she says in the introduction. It was hilarious and short with gems as ‘Labour is torture’, ‘You can’t get away from your kids’, and ‘Why wear yourself out for a future that doesn’t include you?’. I will point out that I have nothing against kids or against (other people) having kids, but this book still had me cracking up and also nodding my head by times.
A quote that I loved from page 105 (reason 33: Motherhood is a trap for women): “If until recently women have held such a minor position in the history of human culture, it is quite simply because they’ve been handed the dirty work, having to go through the pain of childbirth and to raise the brood.”
Maier perhaps puts a bit too much trust in immigration and has quite a few not so subtle political jabs about the state of affairs in the EU and France in general. Hilarious read, but maybe not for everyone 
Oh, I’m curious to hear what kind of remarks she made on France and the EU.
This sounds like a book that isn’t for me. I often find books that present information in a ‘joking’ manner funny at first but annoying after a while, as if it becomes too much to enjoy it any longer. Then again, I want to have kids when I’m older so maybe that’s why I don’t want to read the book.
I agree that it’s weird how everyone seems to think your life unfulfilled because you don’t want to have children. It’s probably another one of those patterns that people just can’t seem to think outside of.
Yes, the high rating was partially only because I found the concept so funny. I also portioned it out between other reading and work, reading a reason or two at a time. Some of her political rants were a bit much for me. Funny, but way over the top. Things like how kids are all conformists, but then goes on to say that we all are anyway. Or how the system in the EU / France make you dependent like a kid anyway which I don’t agree with!