99. Helena de Groot on Finding Peace Amid the Discomfort of Doubt

In this conversation, producer, sound designer, and creator of CBC Personally's Creation Myth podcast, Helena De Groot, shares her deeply personal journey of deciding to remain childfree.

Hear Keltie & Helena discuss:

• The complex emotions and societal expectations surrounding the decision to have kids or remain childfree.
  
  
• Why the possibility of personal growth was one of the biggest factors pulling Helena toward the motherhood path.
  
  
• What she wishes she handled differently when discussing her desire to be childfree with her ex-husband.
  
  
• The conversation that finally helped solidify her childfree choice.
  
  
• How she grappled with the topic of meaning and her place in this world, without kids.

(1:03) Meet Helena, her podcast, and her Kids or Childfree decision

(28:30) Conversations with friends about the Kids or Childfree decision

(37:32) Helena and her first husband's differing opinions about having kids

(48:13) Convenience and connection, the danger of the term "childfree"

(58:22) The advice that helped Helena find clarity

(1:10:33) Meaning and purpose without kids

Mentioned in this episode:

Finding Helena online at www.helenadegroot.me

Tune into the Creation Myth podcast on CBC Personally: https://app.magellan.ai/listen_links/zkujNM

Her Instagram is @helenavelikaja

Discover Helena's other work:

Poetry Off the Shelf:

Every two weeks, Helena interviews a poet about their life and work.

• In Touch the Moon, is an interview with a highly original man who wrote a book about William Blake.
• In Pen Pals, a poet friend and her spent a summer exchanging voice messages, about aging and the death of his parents.
• In Glow in the Dark, she talked to a poet with ALS, 20 days before she died, then interviewed her best friend and her husband.

Audiobook about Mary Oliver, titled Wild and Precious.

🔗 Join our upcoming Kids or Childfree Group Program:

https://www.kidsorchildfree.com/kids-or-childfree-program

About Helena:

Helena de Groot is a producer and sound designer on many critically acclaimed, prize-winning podcasts and audiobooks, such as the New Yorker favorite Paris Review Podcast and New York Times selected Wild and Precious: An Ode to Mary Oliver, she also talks to writers and artists for the Poetry Foundation podcast Poetry Off the Shelf. Her latest show, Creation Myth, is an audio memoir and Tribeca Official Selection for CBC Personally where she asks the mother of all questions: do I want to have kids?

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