Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, and her husband decided they never wanted to have kids. And that’s totally cool! So why are you grilling her about it?
In the new episode of Katie Couric’s podcast, Couric asks Garten why she and her husband Jeffrey never had children.
*We would just like to interrupt this moment to say that Couric would never ask, say, Christopher Walken this — who is also busy happily living a childless existence.*
Ok, back to the interview. Garten responded perfectly, saying,
“I really appreciate that other people do and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to but it was a choice I made very early. I really felt, I feel, that I would have never been able to have the life I’ve had. So it’s a choice and that was the choice I made.”
AMEN!
We all know by now that the concept of “having it all” is a myth. And Garten should not be penalized for picking her career over children. Nor should she even have to explain herself! Why is having children the default in this scenario?
Couric then asks her about the stigma of not having children, which luckily Garten said she never felt.
“No I never felt judged by it—maybe people did but I didn’t notice.”
It’s funny (and by funny, we mean sexist) how people are so quick to question why women decide not to have children and yet they never wonder why men don’t. In case you missed health class that day, it takes both a sperm and an egg to create a baby. So why is it all on the woman?
It’s so silly (and by silly, we mean ridiculous) that we still have to even talk about this. We don’t blame Katie Couric, because, let’s be real, she was just doing her job. It’s not her fault this is the society we live in. But let’s make sure we change that.
