you can be aging without children for many reasons hey i'm hannah the wife without kids
this channel is all about building a positive community to support you
in your child free life you never could have them you never wanted to have them
your children are disabled so they won't be able to look after you your children have died
your children have moved to australia you might be in a second marriage and perhaps those children
don't like you i think that probably happens more often than we like to talk about they're no longer
nearby to help you you don't like your children you don't want to be a burden on your children
so there are so many reasons we automatically sort of think oh it's because people didn't have
kids and that's why they're aging without children but that's actually not true
there are many reasons why people can age without children and she is mentioning several of them
there is nobody keeping an eye on you and that's why you're an awk and that's why you're invisible
awoks otherwise known as anyone age and without children are facing new challenges every day
during this pandemic as they face difficulties without the help of younger family members i have
never heard of an a walk before it kind of reminds me of an ewok but i'm pretty sure it's not the
same thing i have no clue if we have anything like this in canada i suppose i would be considered
an awk because i don't have any kids and i'm aging even though i'm still kind of youngish
but just where and why did this group come about in york back in 2016 when we started
looking into this there are millions and millions of people young old and and and everybody else who
are either by sheer circumstance have never been married and have never had children or
divorced and now their children are not there or whatever the by choice i love that she says
people of all ages young and old and everyone in between i think at every stage of life people who
don't have children need to be supported it's not just when you're an older person
because when you're younger you need friends and you need support as well i think that's a pretty
smart thing to do start a community for people who are aging without children i mean why not i guess
it's similar to like a seniors community center um your children have died your children have
moved away which in this non-nuclear time is common there are so many reasons
why people don't have the next generation down their adult children to be there for them
in time of need isn't that the truth i think a lot of times we kind of get this flack like if you
choose not to have kids you get flak like oh no one's going to be there for you but you can have
kids and then those kids are not going to be there for you for the reasons that she listed and others
there are many reasons why people are aging without children it's not just oh you didn't have
kids and now you're aging without children and i'm really glad that she brought that up because
i think that's actually a really important point because it's one that we don't hear very often to
show them how to work a tablet or to take them to the hospital or to whatever it is there isn't that
younger generation to give support so if you've got a huge gap there who or what
is filling that gap okay i do have to say this even as a person of the younger generation
i find technology infuriating sometimes it's very straightforward and i can use it and no problem
and then other times it gets me so frustrated and i'm so glad i have my husband who is like
a tech whiz he just comes in and he swoops in and figures it out in like five minutes
something that i've been working on for like an hour and couldn't figure out he's like oh you
just do this you do this you do this and it's done i can't imagine how frustrating and overwhelming
that must be for the older generation now i will say some of them are extremely adaptable
my grandma i can't even believe it she had an ipad and she was mid to late 80s when she got her ipad
and when i would visit her she would just whizz around on this thing like she knew exactly
how to use it i'm not saying that older people don't have the skill set to use new technology
but i think it can be a lot the learning curve can be really high and there's so many things that
could potentially go wrong or things that can be a challenge to figure out so i was really impressed
with the skill that my grandma had in using her ipad and i know that there are some older
people that just have no interest in learning new technology and i don't blame them honestly i don't
i bet you anything when i'm in my 80s there's going to be some new type of technology and my
husband's going to be like oh check this out don't you want to learn this and i'll just be like no
let me just sit here with like my little ipad and my iphone and i'll be perfectly content with that
and i probably won't want to learn anything new so i'm pretty impressed when the older generation
is utilizing technology in their daily lives but she's totally right it is nice to be able
to have someone to show you how all of that works because it can be pretty complicated so
aging without children is looking at that gap and seeking solutions i think people want to make sure
that they don't feel forgotten and often people feel overlooked anyway and then obviously during
covid there's been a lot of media coverage about families you know and there is definitely a gap
there it's actually a gap that exists even when you're younger watching this actually
makes me think that maybe it's really important to start filling that gap when you're younger rather
than waiting until you're older and so if we can work out filling that gap right now at creating
community even when we're on the younger side i think that would probably translate into having
a community of people around you that as you age you're already surrounded by community you're not
suddenly frantically looking for a community of people when you're in your 70s or your 80s
and we're very aware that a lot of the media coverage has been around people standing outside
care home windows waving at their you know elderly parent or people um trying to get their parents
online um people not being able to visit in hospitals we've heard about this a lot in canada
with the senior citizens homes being locked down and the lockdown was extremely strict i can't even
imagine what that would be like you're stuck in this little room you probably aren't even able to
converse and socialize with the people that you live with even within your own building because
people were so worried obviously there was so much concern about the older generation catching covet
and how dangerous that could be but there hasn't really been much coverage if any about people who
either live alone or people who live in couples who don't have any family support i mean some
of the challenges are very practical ones about particularly for people living alone um accessing
food medication um as sue mentioned people being socially isolated potentially not online
so if you're an elderly person and you've never used technology you're almost
forced into learning how to use it if you want to have any type of communication with
people in the outside world which could be a little bit overwhelming but hopefully there was
some support there for people so they didn't feel like they had to try to figure it out
themselves because i think most people probably wouldn't be able to figure it out themselves
not able to really get all of the support that other organizations might be providing because
people aging without children aren't generally recognized they're very invisible and that's one
of the things that we've always tried to address with the national group and in local groups
it is something i guess that you really do have to think about even when you're younger that
that time will come and hopefully you will be surrounded with a community of people that can
help you or that can aid you in getting the resources and the things that you need to be
able to continue on with life but listening to her talk about it it really is a real thing and
it is going to happen to all of us whether or not we have children and so then the question becomes
do we have something set in place do we have a community of people are we creating relationships
and organizations where we get to help each other and it's a growing demographic of people so
you know there's going to be a lot more people aging without children usually meeting up in
person for monthly catch-ups sue has been able to adapt their services through lockdown
as they enter the virtual world to stay in touch oh i love that they're all having a little zoom
meeting together that's so great the zoom era came upon us and um so we're now holding weekly
zoom meetings for those who can zoom and i've found a way for people who are on the telephone
to get our in on the telephone as well so we're still trying to be inclusive so looking at this
are people of different ages there are some that are definitely on the younger side but there are
some here that actually do look like they're older and they're able to connect with people and have
that community support and i think that is so fantastic and i think it's what a lot of people
do need whether you're young or you're old we all need community support at some point in our lives