For every decision a woman makes, there’s usually someone to tell her that decision is wrong. It’s 2023 and people are still judging (and passing laws about) what women can and cannot do. If a woman makes the decision not to get married or have kids, her personal choice should be celebrated—not questioned, mocked, or discussed at length.
Therapist Aishia Grevenberg uses her platform to talk about a variety of topics. She often makes posts about dating for pleasure, weaponized incompetence, and toxic relationships, among other subjects. In a recent post, she had the perfect response to a misogynistic podcaster who had some … interesting things to say about the “rich auntie lifestyle.”
The podcaster claimed that the rich auntie life is “an excuse for a woman [who’s] not ready for responsibility or commitment.” Grevenberg responded by laying out her reasoning for the way she lives her life, with many comments commending her.
It’s ridiculous that she even had to make a video explaining her life choices in the first place. But until women can live their lives however they see fit without question, we’ll likely continue feeling the need to defend our decisions.
Grevenberg began her reel by saying, “I’m literally just trying to live my life, my rich auntie life. Let me help you understand what that is.” Her reasons were concise and perfectly understandable.
1. “I Don’t Have Children (Because I Don’t Want Them)”
There are so many reasons a woman might make the deeply personal choice not to have children. Grevenberg got straight to the point: She doesn’t have kids because she doesn’t want to have kids, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any responsibilities.
Along with being a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist, Grevenberg dedicates time to giving her dog Sage “her best life.” She added that she’s not married because she doesn’t want to be married to “nobody’s dusty-ass son.” Grevenberg then explained that she dates for pleasure (a frequent topic of her posts) rather than for marriage.
2. “I Have A Lot Of Money [And] I Spend It On Me”
Grevenberg said that living a “rich auntie life” is about living for your own happiness: doing whatever you want to do when you want to do it with no apologies. As she put it, “A rich auntie lifestyle is about saying, ‘I have made a deliberate, conscious choice that marriage is not for me and children are not for me. I am for me’ … That’s what a rich auntie is.” We applaud her for knowing what she wants and what she doesn’t want.
