Wait Here: the stories we don’t tell about women without children

Posted on 1 July, 2025

It’s nothing. It’s everything. Becoming a mother is one of the most complex life decisions a woman can make.

It’s also the topic of author (and former Canberra local) Lucy Nelson’s new book Wait Here.

A collection of hilarious and heart-wrenching short stories about women who can’t, don’t or won’t have children – either through choice or circumstance – Wait Here explores the timely, emotional and complex emotions women experience when thinking about motherhood.

Born from a “self-imposed short fiction bootcamp” where Lucy was living alone in an old, converted church where she spent years writing every day, she realised that in all her short stories, the central characters were (unintentionally) childless women. From there, the idea of Wait Here came to life.

“I think it was two years in the making, though it’s hard to say precisely because so many of the stories have probably been brewing for much longer in my subconscious,” she says.

“I thought this might make an interesting and timely thread to bind a collection together. I chose twelve of the strongest stories and sent them off to my agent last year.”

Following the stories of multiple women and their diverse experiences and feelings surrounding motherhood, in Wait Here, each woman arrives at childlessness through different paths. And while Lucy doesn’t believe she has – or can – truly capture the full spectrum of feelings about childlessness, the book dives into the paradox of motherhood that plays out for many women – including herself.

“Some days I think ‘I will never be a mum like I imagined. Not ever.’ And it’s huge. It feels like one of my vital organs is missing. And other days I don’t think of it at all. I suppose the book is that one-woman paradox, writ large,” she explains.

“Speaking as one human about her own child free life, I alone have felt grief, liberation, apathy, regret, elation, curiosity and more. So, even within my own interior world there are loads of emotional states to draw on. And these multiply every time I talk to other women about their own feelings on the matter. I also accepted that the multitude of feelings about childlessness, and ways of arriving at it, are far too varied and nuanced to capture in one book.”

Lucy’s exploration of these complex emotions couldn’t be more timely. Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows women are having fewer children and having them later in life, while debates about childlessness have entered mainstream conversations – from Australian model Ellie Gonsalves’ viral list of 118 reasons to be childfree to broader discussions about the ethics of bringing children into an uncertain world.

“In the midst of ongoing climate, humanitarian and cost of living crises, people are putting more thought than ever into the ‘kids versus no kids’ decision. I mean, if you even have the power and freedom to make that choice for yourself then you’re already very fortunate indeed,” says Lucy.

“But if we look at the state of the world right now, there have never been more terrifying and compelling reasons to opt out of parenthood. Starting a family – let alone sustaining, feeding and caring for one – is, for many of us, starting to feel like a surreal luxury.”

Helping her reach a “more resolute state of acceptance about not being a mum”, writing Wait Here has been an eye-opening experience for Lucy. Having many women share their own stories in return, she says the more she talks about Wait Here¸ the more she realises that everyone has a unique relationship to the topic of childlessness, and everyone has a funny or painful or heartfelt story about it.

“A childless-by-choice woman in her seventies told me how sick to death she is of people prying about the reasons she never had kids. A young queer woman told me that her mum’s response to her coming out was wildly misguided heartbreak that her queerness would equate to her never having children,” she says.

“Women who have struggled with infertility have told me that this book has given them a private place to come and spend time with all the different kinds of mothering women offer each other, and all the varied ways they build families. Broadly speaking, the result has been a resounding affirmation that childless or childfree women are experiencing prejudice and tension in conversations around their lives and choices.”

Coming to Canberra on Tuesday 22 July for an In Conversation event with Beejax Silcox to talk about Wait Here, there’s no doubt that a book that pushes against societal narrative surrounding motherhood will spark many conversations. But what is Lucy hoping people will say?

“I’m open to any conversation these stories might spark. I think traditionally in literature and pop culture, childless women are often portrayed on two ends of the villain to victim spectrum. I wanted to talk about all the shades of grey in between,” she says

“If a male character never thinks about his biological clock, never yearns for children or laments his inability to have them… we don’t blink. He’s just a person. I guess I wanted to create and spend time with women characters who are under no obligation to configure their identities around kids or the lack of them.”

“It’s never a bad idea to talk about these things more openly.”