I feel like the subject of children and babies has come up a lot lately in my Internet circle. Because this is my personal website, I’m just going to go ahead and throw my two cents into the pot. Feel free to disagree.

Children are more than status symbols. They are more than accessories. More than the completion of a family. More than a marriage fulfilled. More than a woman fulfilled.

Society passes right by children as people. We simply equate babies right into the American dream alongside big weddings, jobs, cars and houses. For real, people. These are HUMAN BEINGS we’re talking about here. Little souls that will grow up to be big souls. Little hands, hearts, and minds that will grow to be YOUR REPLACEMENT on this planet. You were a baby once, anticipated greatly by a woman who called herself Mother. Have I used the CAPS key enough? Have a little respect.

When I got pregnant with Poppy, I was shocked at the number of people that said to me, “How long have you been married? A year? Well, that seems about right, then!” Seriously, people. Jacob and I never sat down and said Dating, Engagement, Marriage, BABIES! I’m not a baby machine. And frankly, none of this has anything to do with why or when to have a child. I’m tired of people writing off childbearing and rearing as just another part of a “normal” Western life.

In my culture, I’m too young to have a child. Why not have a career or a life of my own first? To this, I say hutty putty. HUTTY PUTTY. Giving life to a human being, who I am privileged to know and love, is one of the most empowering feelings in the whole world. It is the wholeness of my female body and the completion of my sexuality. It is the only thing I can work on that will last beyond my life. I am perfectly capable of having a career, a life, and children at the same time. Give me some credit.

Having a baby is more than onesies and bottles and hairbows and cute shoes. (C’mon, the shoes ARE cute). Despite the mainstream resources that FLOOD American media and the Internets, child rearing isn’t just about the image. Many wonderful mothers will tell you just that if you’d take the time to ask them, instead of brushing them off as desperate housewives. Having a baby doesn’t mean you get heaped into the pile of the socially “average.” I’ve known some very non-mainstream people in my life that have had wonderful experiences with children. Wonderfully marginalized experiences.

I can only speak for myself, and I’m not judging anyone who doesn’t get the whole “baby” thing. I just wish people would open their minds a bit more to the idea that children are human beings too. And women who have children aren’t just a bunch of mommyblogging sows with nothing better to do then fulfill their duties as baby factories. They are intelligent, strong women who can see the value in giving life where no one else can give it.

The end.