Rev. Liz Miller: Not Everyone Is Called To Have Children

The choice to not have children is a path a lot of folks take, and it can often come with a stigma. There’s often a response those folks get when they tell others they don’t want kids - everything from “Are you sure?” or “One day you’ll change your mind.” 

Today we have on Rev. Liz Miller to talk about why saying some of those things can cause harm, and how they are really rooted in the notion that women, or folks with wombs, are only made to bear children. So, while talking directly about the choice to not bear children, we are also doing a little bit of patriarchy dismantling. Brick by brick, right?

Liz has a particularly unique perspective on the choice to have children , which they’ll share more about in the interview. Most folks, regardless of gender but especially women, have to extricate themselves from the narrative that children will inevitably be a part of their story. But Liz was given a very different lens to understand parenting as one particular call/vocation - but not THE call of their life in particular. 

Whether having kids is a part of your story or not, this interview is full of incredible insight on the benefit of choosing not to have kids and how we can better come alongside those folks who make that choice for themselves.

.

.

.

Rev. Liz Miller (she/they) is the Pastor at Edgewood United Church UCC in East Lansing, MI. Originally from California, she graduated from Agnes Scott College in Georgia, earned her Master of Divinity from Andover Newton, and previously served a congregation in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. In her local community she serves on her city's Human Rights Commission. She is a writer, a spouse, a quilter, and a triathlete.