Mother's in Space-- SFR Freebie!

Free for Mother's Day!

https://www.instafreebie.com/free/ABxgM

Widow Aerria faces galactic prison when her precocious daughter rescues a child from an observation-only planet. She turns to old friend Domingo, a recovered cyborg, for help. A short story set in the Diaspora Worlds universe.

What if you kick ass heroine becomes a mother? It is not really that far-fetched an idea.Women through the centuries have welcomed and loved their children. What about in Scifi Romance?

I love colonization SciFi. It is hopeful, people are moving to that alien planet to start a future, for themselves and their children.

Becoming a mother was a life changing experience for me. My life focus changed dramatically, far more than it did when I got married, or when I graduated from college or any other life passage. Life centered around the Child. Other women I know well have this same reaction to motherhood. It seems common. I suspect it was just as common in 11 BC as it is in our time.

What about 4011 AD? What will life be like for families, for children, for mothers? I doubt that a two-year-old will be any different in the distant future than a two-year-old is right now, or that child development will change any significant way. I doubt children will potty train upon walking with no muss, fuss or accidents, or that adolescents will be mood-swing free. Culture, marriage and family structure might change--but a two-year-old will still need constant interaction and oversight. Children will still need years of care and will never be conveniently hidden away until the day they are mature adults.

I find the topic of child rearing in the future fascinating. In popular television, we have glimpses of child rearing aboard the Enterprise. In classic scifi fiction, Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long is part of a group marriage, where children are welcome and child care is shared. There are also planet pioneers with family structure similar to what we experience. Podkayne's life is disrupted by the early arrival of twins--though hers did not come from Mother's womb.

Although she is not actually scifi, Buffy is a good example of a kick ass heroine with parenting responsibilities  She becomes responsible for the rearing of her younger sister Dawn after the death of their mother. Lucky for them both, Buffy was not a loner and developed a loyal group of Scoobies, who helped her fight the evils from the Hellmouth and also made pancakes for her sister Dawn. Even Spike the vampire did babysitting duty.

That is part of what I find fascinating about the topic of children in the future. It is hard to raise a child all alone, isolated. Western homesteaders developed schools and social events so their isolated families could be together. Children encourage community, people bonding together to make a safe environment for families.

I do write SFR with Mother Heroines! My short story Cyborg Security, free today, has a situation caused by a precocious child.

In Refugees  On Urloon, I have a mother heroine. My heroine Svana is an older woman, and a mother. Her daughter is grown and they are separated by a huge distance. As if life is not complicated enough, planning a future on an isolated, strange world, Svana experiences an unplanned pregnancy.  She now has far more to worry about.

In Starlander's Myth, my heroine is a widow with a four-year-old daughter. Her child makes her situation even direr and she struggles to provide a safe haven for them.

While romances with children and babies do not appeal to every reader, they do have their readers. For a woman with a child, the stakes become much higher. Like in life, getting the job done might require an ensemble of caregivers, A child might do something impulsive or dangerous that causes I think there is room in science fiction romance for romances that include mother, children, fathers and the chaos of family life.