domingo, 24 de janeiro de 2010

No kidding.

I´ve always been a kid person. Grew up surrounded by little cousins, started my carreer life as a ESL teacher for preschoolers, then travelled the world working as a nanny, which I´m still doing. And more and more I start to empathize and agree with some very criticized and misunderstood members of our society. People who don´t have children by choice, that is.
Kids are cute, funny and once you get married, sort of part of the package( at least people expect you to have them). Why wouldn´t you want them? The interesting thing is that parenthood for some people is like a cult, once they join it, it´s all they can talk about and they try as hard as they can to push it on other people. But is it really all that´s cracked up to be? Children are expensive, time consuming (at least if you want to do a good job), they demand attention and sacrifices. Especially for women, the carreer/baby decision is tough. Is it worth it? Most parents will say yes. And I agree. But do they have the right to call Child-free people selfish for chosing a life with no diapers and PTA meetings? Absolutely not. Because no one was ever able to give me one unselfish reason to add another human being to an already over populated messed up world.
Like everything else in life, parenthood is a calling and a choice and shouldn´t be taken for granted, or treated irresponsably. Having cared for children for the last 10 years of my life, I see how wonderful they are. I also see what they do to your sex life, your marriage, your social calendar, your job... I have a friend who was looked at as if she were a psycho whenever she mentioned she didn´t plan on having children. I respected her choice, but had plans to have mine eventually. That friend now has a 4 month old baby daughter she adores.And I decided I don´t want to even think about rasising a living being that speaks(I´m ok with dogs and plants) for the next 10 years. If I had a shotgun to my head right now and had to pick : You can have a carreer or kids. What would you pick? I´d say... Bring on the job.
I might change my mind back eventually. In fact I have the perfect plan already laid out; invest in my carreer until I´m 40 and then, adopt my adorable kids. No ticking clocks for me! What about you? What would you chose?

2 comentários:

  1. Oi, li seu blog sobre au pair na Austria e acabei chegando aqui, li, li e li e não achei seu nome... Bom, queria conversar com você sobre ser au pair, eu sei que isso deve encher seu saco, mas se pude ajudar agradeço.
    meu msn é tatacarteano@hotmail.com.

    Bjs

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  2. I'm pretty confused... Not that i can choose anything right now ;)

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