Monday, April 07, 2008

Swimming against the current

Our department is, I think, the most fertile one in the school - and I'm not just talking about creativity, mind you! There are only two teachers in the department (out of ten) who do not have children, and the other one returned from retirement, so as a result, I tend to get rather a lot of ribbing about being The Next One. (Just got word that this morning we've got a baby girl from another teacher on the hall.)

I do not want to be pregnant.
I do not want to give birth.
I do not want to be a primary caregiver.

I really think I'd make a much better dad than mom. I'm great at making kids laugh when I swing them around under their arms. I'm great at saying NO and sticking to it. And there's only so much time in a day. I don't want to lose time with my husband.

I don't know if it's the local culture or if it'd be the same anywhere, but there's this expectation that if you're female, you want babies. Don't get me wrong; I like kids. I just... I'm too happy being a teacher and a wife. I don't want to sacrifice any of it - not even to be a mom.

2 comments:

Mrs. Chili said...

Keep swimming, my friend.

Unless being a mother is something your soul desperately NEEDS to do, don't do it. You won't serve yourself, and you CERTAINLY won't serve a child by having that child because that's what others expect of you.

Politely tell the people who push the idea that it's a personal matter and that you don't discuss it and ask them to leave it at that.

HappyChyck said...

When you get to be of a certain age and are married, yes, people believe the next step for you is to have children. Oh, and if you're a teacher and don't have children, you must be some child-hating freak! Mrs. Chili, always a woman of wisdom, is spot on about his. MYOB!

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