“You’ll Change Your Mind.”

I could not be more different from Jen Kirkman — I got married young, finished college, had a couple of kids and go to work every day at an office (albeit one where I wear blue jeans and sneakers..but still!). Jen does stand up and works for Chelsea Lately and knows that comedy is the job for her. She also knows that she absolutely, positively does not want kids — a position that she defends in this book (and apparently, to strangers who think they know better) with a good amount of humor.

“… I think that childfree by choice is the new gay. We’re the new disenfranchised group. People think we’re irresponsible, immoral sluts and that our lifestyle is up for debate.”

The memoir starts as most do — little Jen knowing that she wants to be in the spotlight when she grows up. While some people on Goodreads complained that it took a few chapters for Kirkman to get into her main thesis — the “no kids” thing — I was happy for a little introduction as I knew nothing about Kirkman before picking up her book. But then she launches into her defense of not wanting kids. It’s nothing new — she likes being selfish, she doesn’t like the idea of parenting, she likes her freedom, etc. — and she explains all of these things with a lot of funny anecdotes. What surprised me was how often this argument came up for her in real life — people constantly telling her she’ll change her mind, that it’ll be different when it’s her kid, and so on. I’ve never dealt with that (although I may have occasionally been on the giving end — sorry, Caitlin_D) and this book made me realize how obnoxious it must be to have people assume they know better than you about such a personal decision.