Bindi Irwin takes kindness very seriously and is a fierce supporter of all vulnerable creatures — from animals to children. That’s why she is ditching one common parenting term, and it makes a big difference! The Australia Zoo CEO shared her feelings about family planning and having an “only child” in a new interview with her husband Chandler Powell, and it’s a must-see video.
Irwin and Powell answered several fan-submitted questions in a video on the Australia Zoo YouTube Channel, including one that they get “a lot”: if they want another child. The couple, who are parents to 3-year-old daughter Grace Warrior, responded with kindness, of course. Irwin started by saying she does “really appreciate everybody who’s curious to see if we will have another child.” But that doesn’t mean it’s OK to ask.
“I do just want to send it out there that, remember to be careful when you ask this question because you never know what’s happening in someone’s life,” she continued, adding that someone might be going through a personal journey “filled with turmoil and challenges that you can’t even fathom.”
I completely agree. Close friends of mine have struggled with back-to-back miscarriages in their journey for a baby, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking to have someone question when you are going to have kids when going through that. I’ve been asked multiple times if I will have another baby, and I’ve had to tell complete strangers that I don’t know as I am going through cancer treatment currently. It’s awkward at best and completely crushing at worst — so let’s just keep our thoughts to ourselves and let people tell you (or not) if they do decide to have a child.
The Crikey! It’s the Irwins star knows that many people ask this out of “kindness and good intent,” but it still can be “tricky,” especially for people who can’t (or choose not to) have a child for one reason or another. This is something that Irwin herself can relate to, as she went through her own struggles with endometriosis.
“We feel very lucky to have Grace. She is our beautiful girl, but she will probably be our one child,” Irwin said. She added that you “never know” what life could have in store — “maybe we will be blessed with another little one down the road. That would be incredible.” But for now, they are completely happy as a family of three. “We are just reveling, reveling in Grace,” she added.
In the clip, Irwin opened up about how she is not a fan of saying things like, “Grace will be our only child.” “I do not like the word ‘only,’” she explained. “Grace is our child. She is our one beautiful, perfect, amazing little girl. And, oh my goodness, every single day I think about how lucky we are to have her.”
Yes! “Only child” makes it sound derogatory, or like there is something somehow less than about her because she doesn’t have any siblings, when of course, every child is perfect exactly how they are. (Maybe we could use terms like “single child” or “one-kid family” instead?)
This isn’t the first time Irwin has addressed this. In an interview with PEOPLE last September, Irwin shared, “I feel like it is a universal question for women, which is heartbreaking because you never know what’s going on in someone’s life and what’s happening behind closed doors. “And someone asking you, ‘Why aren’t you having more children? It’s your responsibility to have more children.’ It breaks your heart because we all have a different journey and a different story.”
“For us personally, we feel so lucky to have Grace,” she continued. “I think that every day I wake up and I look at our beautiful daughter and think she is our tiny little miracle and it makes me cry because we were very, very lucky to have her. And there was every chance that we wouldn’t have been able to have a little one, so to have our beautiful girl, we are so lucky.”
Before you go, check out these celebrities who are parents of only children.
