I don’t know why I can’t share them with you. I don’t know why I sometimes think of them on quiet morning walks with my dog or why they pop up in my mind unbidden on Sunday afternoons. As I head toward perimenopause, I’m feeling something I didn’t expect: occasional sadness about not having children. One, who we’ll call Sam, who is in her late 40s, married and never wanted kids. There were long stretches of time where I would not think of kids at all—not my hypothetical kids, not other people’s kids.

Source: The Times January 05, 2026 16:00 UTC