Motherhood is not for everyone. Yet, childless women are often characterized as “unfulfilled,” “unhappy” and “selfish,” Chelsea Handler pointed out on a recent episode of The Daily Show. While the comedian says she has “infinite respect for moms” it doesn’t mean she wants it for herself.
“One thing I have made abundantly clear is I do not want children,” she shared as guest host of The Daily Show. “Motherhood is hard. It’s so hard it even broke Marie Kondo,” she joked, referencing the professional organizer who admitted to have “kind of given up” on maintaining a tidy home after having three kids.
Handler used the show’s Long Story Short segment to address the criticism that those who don’t want children face. After showing a montage of women being questioned and shamed for their choices, the comedian pushed back by listing all of the ways childless adults contribute to society. Including being more likely to give money to charity, maintaining a lower carbon footprint, and the reason there are “fewer screaming children on airplanes, in movie theaters, and restaurants.”
In a parody video titled “A Day In the Life of a Childless Woman” she digs the point in deeper. Using the classic GRWM format, we watch as Handler roles out of bed after a morning masturbation sesh to pull on her most “impractical and stylish” shoes since she “won’t be chasing a child around a grocery store.” The remainder of her day is spent flying to Paris for breakfast followed by a “quick workout” on Mount Everest.
The rest of her month? We get a glimpse of her planner spread open to a page that says, “WHAT EVER THE FUCK I FEEL LIKE” across the calendar.
Just another day. pic.twitter.com/Bf4cdBqunG
– Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) February 10, 2023
And no, she doesn’t hate kids. “I just don’t want them.” She’d rather be an aunt to her many nieces and nephews, she says. “I’m crushing that role.”
Some people seemed to have missed the point of Handler’s parody video. Host of “Dear America Podcast” Graham Allen replied, “This is the saddest thing I have ever seen, and also a reason for every young woman NOT to repeat your horrendous existence.”
Of course, Handler had the perfect response for the trolls as well. “These Fox News trolls are right about one thing, I am miserable,” she quips as she shows off her Instagram feed. “I’m miserable on the beach. And here I am miserable at the top of a mountain. And then I’m miserable again smoking a joint in a hot tub.”
All jokes aside, she shared her simple truth: “I’m not having kids because I’m happier without them, and that’s really not of anyone’s concern but my own,” she said to the cheering Daily Show audience.