A couple of months ago I was on a playdate with my youngest child, who’s seven. One of the other moms was pregnant and yet another had just had a baby, a sweet six-week-old who made my ovaries skip a beat. She asked me and one other mom, who had seven and three-year-old boys, if were were done having kids.
“Oh, yes,” I replied emphatically, “I’m old. I’m 40.”
“That’s not too old! I had Johnny when I was 40,” said the mom of the three-year-old.
Oops. CALLED OUT. Ok, so the real reason I’m done having kids is…I don’t want to have any more kids. Is that bad??
When I was a young wife, before I had kids, I thought I wanted five kids. I mean after all I LOVED kids, and I adored being an aunt, and I adored my husband and the thought of having a bunch of little mini-uses all around seemed idyllic.
But then I had a kid. After I had one, I thought, “maybe three”. After I had two, I thought “Remember when I only had one? THAT WAS AWESOME.” Just kidding (sort of), I really thought, “Two’s good.” And then, well, we went away without kids for our 10th anniversary, and…we ended up bringing one back with us. And make no mistake, I am so glad we did. But I am also so glad we are not having any more. I got my tubes tied on the operating table when I had a c-section with baby #3 and I’ve not regretted it for one single second. Our family is complete and it feels great. And so does never having to have ankles the size of a California Redwood ever again. Which I think is a great segue into my 5 reasons I’m glad I’m done having kids.
5 reasons I’m really glad I’m done having kids
1) I can’t seem to pop them out the right way, and major abdominal surgery three times in seven years was puh-lenty. Especially that first time when I got a paralyzed bowel and it hurt worse than labor, and that third time when my magic pain ball medicine they gave me after surgery DIDN’T WORK and the nurse didn’t believe me and I just wanted to die for a couple days. For these reasons, I’m going to give another pregnancy a “hard pass.”
