[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

I've had a co-worker say, "You can never really know love until you have a child." I've had people who barely know me say, "Oh, but you will. Someday. Trust me."

Yeah, frequently people assume a desire for children and simply cannot understand a different opinion. They assume I'm either broken or lying. When people assure us that we will someday want children, it seems like they are trying to reassure themselves somehow that their desire for children is normal; I'm wondering why it's so important to them that I want children. I don't get it.

My uncle's wife raised one of those "center of the universe" children. This girl was her last child, and my aunt's main goal seemed to be to not allow the child to grow up (I think the woman would be happy for her daughter to be perpetually age 4). She wanted to do every little thing for the girl. I think there was some guilt with this as well as the fear of the child growing up, but independence was quite a challenge for her. Luckily, the girl seems to realize that constant dependence on one's mother is not normal, and seems to have made a somewhat independent life for herself, but it wasn't easy.

And like you say- crying babies in movie theaters? Not so ok. Crying babies at Disneyland? Happens.