BYPASSING PARENTHOOD

Tune is as Patricia interviews Laurie Graff, author of the bestselling chick-lit hit, You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, actress and media consultant. She is a contributing writer to the new book by Henriette Mantel No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood. Graff and 35 female writer contributors tell their stories in No Kidding which they hope will spark conversation and perhaps consideration of a new holiday tradition, Non Moms Day. The book is a candid, often funny collection of perspectives, ranging from women who never had the urge to those who were ambivalent or who accepted or were relieved by infertility. The book lands at a time when an increasing number of women don't have kids by their mid-40s - nearly 20 percent in 2010, up from about 10 percent in the 1970s, according to the Pew Research Center. Child-free singles and couples around the country seek each other out on the Internet for meet-ups where they don't have to talk about offspring. Laurie will discuss her essay in the book entitled First Comes Love.