Mothers are stronger than women without children.

Spoiler alert: I disagree.

Over the weekend, my partner made a comment that really got me thinking…

The topic of motherhood came up and he said that becoming a mother is the strongest thing that a woman can do. That women who don’t have children lack the same strength that a mother has. Women who are mothers simply have a strength that childless women do not.

His words caught me completely off guard. I started to question him about this comment to get a better understanding of what he meant by this, especially since we plan on spending our lives together and he knows he doesn’t want children of his own— and neither do I. Pretty weird that he would make this claim then, don’t you think?

I couldn’t help but to think — Does this mean he doesn’t think I’m strong, and never will?

He went on to say that he feels that the most difficult thing a woman can do is go through childbirth and then raise her child. My guard immediately came up and I became slightly defensive, but more so — I felt a sense of hopelessness and failure. I questioned everything about what I believed so far. If this is true, it would mean that I would always be lacking the strength that he views in mothers.

Would this mean that my partner would never fully respect me as a woman unless I had kids? Even though neither of us wants to have them?