attention
by rantywoman
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-your-childless-girl-fr-by-Annabelle-RC-121204-408.html
When you become a mom, remember to
hold onto your childless girl friends, because more than ever, they will
be worth their weight in gold. That’s right, most of us new moms
ditch those single gals, whose priorities are now so different from
ours. But in spite of the radical lifestyle differences, accompanied by
the misconception that we must run headlong into
the nearest circle of new moms, it won’t be long before we learn that
our childless friends still have so much to offer…
After two years as a mom, it has finally dawned on me that my interactions
with mom friends is at best frustrating (at worst hurtful), whilst
interactions with childless friends continues to be satisfying. With
childless friends we can finish a conversation and enjoy one another’s
undivided attention, whilst with moms I’ll be halfway through a sentence
before noticing that I’m talking to myself, as mommy has just been
distracted by toddler. I have a toddler too, but unless she’s in
immediate danger I tend to let her do her own thing while I converse
with the adults (maybe that’s the French in me, for those who’ve read
Bringing Up Bebe).
thebitterbabe 
I remember visiting with an old high school friend a few years back. We met at a playground with her children playing. Her boy came up several times complaining and mildly whining for this and that. We hadn’t seen each other in years yet she could not say no to her kid and tell him to go play on his own. Not even for one little visit! So I would say that with experiences like this, yes, interacting with childless friends are more satisfying.
Well, there are times that children must come first – and as an adult you need to recognise that. There will be time enough for uninterrupted conversations when they are older – all children grow up. With regard to all this whole “it’s not possible to have a conversation with small kids around” – in my experience, the impact of the child interrupting (which, yes, is a fact) is far less important than the conversation taking place. Being a mom doesn’t make you innately boring, and being childless doesn’t make you innately witty and interesting. It depends on the person. The flip side of the excerpt above is: I would rather have an interrupted conversation with an interesting woman than a calm one with a boring woman. It also presumes long-term friendships with women that don’t have kids has occurred. I really don’t think it’s possible to generalize.
It’s also a bit of a moot point – when kids are small, there often is no time for long, in-depth conversation, and when meeting with other women – the focus Is the kids and sharing experiences around this (It is a major life change after all). If these are friends one has known before (with kids or not) the conversation will usually flow regardless of interruptions. With regard to childless women, after 40 this usually falls into two groups – those who want (or think they want, or wouldn’t mind) kids – and haven’t had them for a number of reasons like infertility or not meeting the right person, being unsure…and the other group are those who don’t want kids and have made a conscious choice to remain childless – either way, I’m pretty sure not many of these women would want to spend their time as the ‘chosen’ “childless friend” who “still have so much to offer” – that comes across as pretty patronizing and self-involved of the writer above if you ask me.