Every family has one, and I'm it. The Different One. It's assumed I don't get it. Can't possibly understand. Must be one of those leaning-in barracudas every mother warns her son about, an overcompensating estrogen-dominant.

I have had moments in my own life when Mother's Day was not a fun day for me. It was painful actually. But I have evolved into choosing to view, receive and experience it in the ways I share here.

I know what some of you may say: Have a baby on your own; adopt; foster. And a few of you may say: Sorry, lady, you should have thought of that earlier. You're just too old. But I want to be a mother.

By: Megan Gannon, News Editor Published: 04/06/2013 11:15 AM EDT on LiveScience Even though there's often more social pressure on women to have k...

Let's talk for a minute about parenthood. Or, more accurately, non-parenthood. I'm talking here about a woman's right to choose. Not her right to choose to stay pregnant, but her right to choose to never get pregnant at all.

I know you are tired, moms. I know you are overworked, I know you want to tell us for how long you were in labor and I feel for you, I do. But please stop scaring me, because if I do decide to join you, apparently these will be my last days of solitary, flavored yogurt-eating, judgment-free fun.

I know what you're thinking. I can read it on your face... the distracted smile, the unconvincing nod, the slightly furrowed brow... You're trying to figure out what's wrong with me.

A generation ago, women who did not marry and/or have children by age 40 grieved and moved on. But today, with the advancement of assisted reproductive technology, women are no longer given permission to move on.

There are many ways to mother, just as there are ways to find fault with women who are not mothers.

Could I ever be seen as a true modern woman success story without also juggling motherhood?

Singles who live alone move into homes with others for the weekend in the summer, staving off more than the concrete heat of the city. It's simply less lonely.

Everyone's talking about this month's cover of the Atlantic, "Why Women Still Can't Have it All." In the essay, author Anne-Marie Slaughter argues tha...

I personally would like to have children at some point down the line (at least I'm pretty sure) but right now I'm content to live a life that just wouldn't be able to exist if I was financially and emotionally responsible for another human being.

The idea that men might feel less empowered than women to discuss their desire to be parents deserves our attention. However, the Daily Mail piece frames the issue in a completely unproductive way -- blaming "career women" for "denying" their partners children.

Babies are born from the womb. Maternity is born from the soul. There are many ways to mother.

A primer on things best not to say to women who have been pumped full of mind-altering hormones and endured an alphabet soup of invasive procedures (ART, IVFs, ICSI's, IUI's), miscarriages and/or had failed adoptions.

My life is FULL of amazing stuff. It sometimes overwhelms me. Yet there is still this attitude in our culture that if you are not a mother, you have nothing.

At this time, I do not have a child, therefore I AM childless. That may change someday, but for now, there is greater peace in accepting it as it is.