“It’s So Selfish to Have Children” – Actress Maxine Peake

Forum 9 years ago

“It’s So Selfish to Have Children” – Actress Maxine Peake

Do we, by chance, have anyone here who agrees with this lady? English stage, film and television actress, Maxine Peake has questioned people’s motivation for starting a family, and according to her, ‘Having children is very selfish.’

The actress – who recently revealed her heartache at spending years trying to conceive – said there was a ‘vanity’ in wanting to continue the family bloodline. Miss Peake had explored ‘every avenue’ – including IVF – before finally accepting defeat.

She also suffered the agony of two miscarriages. Her hardships have led the 40-year-old to reflect on why people have children in the first place.

She recently told The Times how an actor friend had announced to her that he was too selfish to have children. And it prompted her to reply:

‘No, you’re wrong. Having children is very selfish. There is a vanity and selfishness in some respects in believing you must continue your genes and bloodline.’

DailyMail reports that Miss Peake said that watching her long-term boyfriend, television art director Pawlo Wintoniuk, 43, care for both his parents before they died had also made her wonder whether it would be less selfish not to have children.

She added:

‘It made me think I wouldn’t want to have my kids looking after me like that.’ Speaking of her struggle to conceive,

she said:

‘Paw loves kids and we’ve had a go. But it hasn’t worked. That is the case for many people. It is maddening, really, that women have these biological clocks, that just when they are getting used to one stage, they must go on to the next.”

Miss Peake said that since she went public about her infertility, several female friends had thanked her for speaking out, saying the problem was often viewed as something shameful.

‘I find that horrifying,’ she said. ‘But they felt failures as women just because certain bits of their bodies didn’t work.’