This piece in Salon caught my attention yesterday. It’s written by an admittedly un-maternal woman who gives thanks for not getting her tubes tied. She didn’t want children and then surprisingly found herself pregnant and happily parenting. She lists a number of reasons why she and her partner had their son:
We decided to have this baby because I couldn’t go through the grief of another termination. We decided to have it because my partner’s father died and the sense of mortality transformed from a needle falling on glass to a gong. We decided to have this baby because I went to see the first ultrasound at 12 weeks, and they made me listen to the heartbeat, and they said “baby” as if the primordial blob was one, a baby, indeed. We decided to have this baby because my partner secretly changed his mind after watching a friend of his adopt a daughter.
I’m not sure how anyone with a brain reaches adulthood without knowing that a tiny human with a heartbeat is not a primordial blob. That said, the article is a perfect illustration about how a little, helpless blob of a person can wonderfully change the most non-parental, self-centered, dog-preferring couple.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Babies are life-changers — pretty much for the better. ‘Tis the season to remember it.