Quote:
Originally Posted by genuinegirly
Shaindra, thank you for your words. My husband and I will require medical intervention to have children. Hence my words "there just aren't any" in the OP. Shouldn't the fact that we're unable make it easier to not feel this pressure?
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Nope. And the pressure isn't entirely cultural either. It's innate. The same hormones that tell you to eat, sleep and pleasure yourself are there to tell you that babies are what you want. Almost any woman of childbearing years (and beyond) who's held a newborn knows that feeling. It triggers things in our brains that say "safe to breed".
Don't feel like you're insane or abnormal because you may choose not to have kids in spite of these feelings. It's a rare person who is completely devoid of the urge to procreate.
That said, I will say that it's one of those things that you're never truly ready for. You just do it and figure out the rest later. Will it be easier after the PhD? I doubt it. There is no "easy" time. But some people work sequentially on goals, others do better working on goals in parallel. It may also be that having a child alters some of your goals...and that isn't always a bad thing either. It's our job to grab the happiness when it comes, not to delay it until things are "perfect".