If 20-somethings had a dollar for every time our elders told us we should start looking for husbands so we can get busy filling the nest, we’d be able to afford the wedding of our dreams, a beautiful house in the hills, and college tuition for our little miracles while still being able to put a little something away for our retirement funds.
But it’s the 21st century. We want to be #girlbosses, and getting married and having babies just isn’t our number one priority right now. So naturally, when we start getting baby fever in our early to mid twenties, we start freaking out about it.
It is with great pleasure that I tell you this is perfectly normal. Think about it; it wasn’t that long ago (okay, maybe a couple of centuries) that at 21, we would have already been married for a couple of years and pregnant with our third crib midget. At about 25, you would already have been declared the town spinster if you hadn’t been married yet, shunned by your village and left to die alone with your cats.
Our bodies haven’t caught up with the times, however, and our uteruses are confused as to why we haven’t had babies yet. As any high school biology teacher will tell you, having babies is the main reason why we’re even here, and wanting to have children is a natural phenomenon that gives us a reason to carry on our gene pools. In this day and age, 25 is considered young to be getting married, and at 21? Well, good luck convincing everyone that it’s not a shotgun wedding.
Of course, this conversation wouldn’t be complete without taking into consideration how expensive kids are. Historically, kids were like an investment yielding tangible dividends and guaranteed to bring great returns. Now, they’re more of an expense, not suited to work on the farm or expected to take care of you in your old age.
With that regard, it becomes a necessity to hold off on having kids until you’ve reached financial stability. So while the baby mania may be feeling too real right now, don’t forget to think about the circumstances in which you want to bring a human being into this world.
Only you know when is the best time to have kids of your own. If you’re feeling the baby fever coming on strongly and you haven’t even graduated from college yet, just know that you are not alone and that giving into your gut feeling is not always the best decision at the time.
Enjoy the fact that you don’t have to worry about your biological clock ticking away just yet, but time stands still for no one, so be mindful of your health, consider freezing your eggs if you really want to focus on other things, and don’t rush. At the risk of being a total cliché: good things come to those who wait.
