Ever since I got married…no scratch that…ever since I got engaged, I’m constantly bombarded with questions from others if we are going to have kids or WHEN we are going to have kids. And every single time that topics is brought up to me, I instantly start sweating and get anxiety. It’s not a topic I take lightly. I don’t just say to myself, “Yeah, let’s have kids! That will be so fun and everything will be great!” No. I think through that kind of stuff. Because kids are forever. They don’t just go away. They rely on you to raise them, to wipe their bums, to help them become upstanding citizens. And at 28 years old, I’m just not ready for someone else to rely on me. That may be selfish, but I think selfish is the best thing to be until you are truly ready to become a selfless person who puts yourself second. And I’m just not there.
[powerpress]
When I decided to make this a podcast episode, I wrote out a pros and cons list to having a baby. So here’s the quick rundown.
Pros
- My husband would be an awesome father
Cons
- You have to grow a child inside of you then birth it – and all the body and gross stuff that goes with it. I’ve worked very hard to become comfortable with who I am and how I physically look and it’s scary to lose some of that
- Fertility issues – I’ve seen so many friends go through it and it looks so incredibly challenging both mentally and physically
- Financially – children are expensive AF. Finally being able put money into a retirement account and feel more stable for the future is so great and it’s scary to let some of that go.
- You don’t get to sleep much with children
- Lack of sleep leads to a tough relationship with your partner
- Lack of sleep leads to issues with cortisol which can lead to weight issues
- Lack of sleep just really sucks
- Less working out
- I know this is a sketchy subject, I have just seen most of the people I know who used to workout religiously just not care as much about working out anymore. When they have the choice of working out or going home to their child, they obviously want to see their children. I know you can make it work, I just so often see people do the opposite, so that scares me.
- Changes to your relationship
- I don’t personally know any people whose relationship has gotten stronger since they had children.
- Stress to the relationship and different opinions about disciplining your children
- I work all the time and my husband does too – not sure how we would change that. Because I don’t want to work less and I don’t think he could. Which leads to more financial stress to hire a nanny.
- It’s your duty to raise an upstanding citizen, while not knowing what the hell you’re doing yourself.
- What if you raise a serial killer?
- What if they get in with the wrong crowd?
- What if they don’t get their sh*t together and live with you FOREVER?!
I know this comes off as a really pessimistic way to look at things, but I’m just being realistic about it. I think it’s smart to think through these things because so often people just have children and the children aren’t raised in the best environment. I want to feel ready, be ready, and have way less on my cons list. I think more people should really think this sh*t out. Think how different our world would be if they did.
At the end of the day, who knows if I’ll someday want children. If I don’t, I think I will have an awesome life. If I do, I think I’ll have an awesome life. But in the meantime, I just want to hang out with my husband, save money, and do cool sh*t. But next time you’re about to ask a person if they are planning to have kids, remember that they may be going through these things that I listed above and it may not be something they want to talk about with you, let alone think about. So think before you ask.
Next week is another random questions episode so if you have any questions you’d like answered, no matter what the topic is, let me know! Just leave a comment below or on social media!
Episode 10 Transcription:
This is Juli Bauer from PaleOMG and you are listening to PaleOMG Uncensored.
Juli Bauer: Well hey there guys! How you doing today? Right now, I don’t know when the hell you’ll be listening to this, but for me this is the day after Thanksgiving. So I have still plenty of work to get done. But you know, I’m feeling like it’s the day after Thanksgiving, and I don’t want to f*cking do anything, ok? That’s how I feel today. But the show must go on. Sadly, the show is not going on, because I just failed really hard with muffins, because I forgot baking soda and baking powder. So they’re just blocks of thick goo. I mean, they’re still edible, but I’m going to try to stay away from them, you know, since I just ate Thanksgiving food yesterday, and I don’t need to be eating globs of sticky goo. Get my sh*t together.
So I hope your Thanksgiving was great. I hope that last weeks’ episode; we talked about how to eat healthy while traveling and during the holidays; I hope that helped a little bit. I think I personally kept my sh*t together pretty well. I only was a little bit full, but not crazy overly full. I just hate feeling overly full. You know when you feel like you can’t take a deep breath in; that is one of my least favorite feelings. So, I think I kept it together rather well. I did a workout in the morning yesterday, and a workout this morning. Combat it because I finished it with Thanksgiving leftover. So I don’t really know if that was pointless or not; whatever.
But Thanksgiving was good, and I hope yours was wonderful, and I hope you feel good afterwards, and you’re still kicking ass at life because; why does Thanksgiving need to be that time where you just feel awful? Nobody needs that. Nobody wants that, right? Right?!
Ok, let’s get into this today. I was going to say; that’s what I always do. Before my podcast, I’m kind of putting it off, and so I get on Facebook. And I don’t get on Facebook very often; like, my PaleOMG Facebook page. I tried to kind of skim it just in case there were any questions on the post that I posted; but I stay off of it pretty much because the trolls. Literally the worst trolls come out; come out of their little hidden troll world and out into the light. So I kind of stay away from Facebook, but of course I was putting off doing my podcast, and didn’t want to go do the laundry and didn’t want to vacuum; so I got on Facebook and then started reading. Some lady was just; she was on a tyrant. She was not happy about me posting a jacket photo. She was very, very unhappy with that fact and wanted it to be known. It’s just so strange. I don’t understand why people get so upset when I post something that’s helpful to others. It’s like; “Hey; do you need a new jacket? I found one that I love. Here’s an idea.” “Hey, do you need free recipes? Here’s 650.” Just always get so riled up on Facebook; it’s like the devil world. Do you think Facebook will ever go away? I don’t see it go anywhere, but I really wish it would. I really wish it would.
Anywho. She; I don’t think she had a very good Thanksgiving, because it was right around Thanksgiving. Her name was Breezy something; hopefully Breezy is back up and up, girlfriend. I hope you’re doing better. I hope you’re thankful and grateful for the world around you; not necessarily my post, but everyone else that surrounds you, hopefully in a positive way. Or I just hope you go away and not come to my Facebook anymore; thanks.
Anywho. Ok, this topic is just totes something I personally wanted to talk about, because it’s something on my mind all the time, mostly because of other people; thanks other people. But, it’s weird when you get married, people ask you all the time when you’re going to have kids. Or if you’re going to have kids, or if you’re pregnant. Those questions seem to get thrown around a lot. Especially at my gym, because the people at my gym know that I’m so not interested in that, and they know that it annoys me so they just bombard me with those types of comments and questions all the time, so it’s really quite lovely. It’s lovely.
But you know, what happens is you get married, and people think it’s ok to ask you questions about having sex and making a baby. People think that’s totally cool. I think it’s just people don’t know what else to talk about, so they just ask you that. It’s never like; “Yeah, you just got married. You have money; both of you are getting money, together, are you going to go on cool vacations? Are you going to do fun sh*t?” No. it always has to do with kids.
So, I’m going to kind of do that topic today. It’s more so of a therapeutic session; and it’s always nice when I get to talk to people who have gone through, or are going through, or feel the same way that I do, because I think society is a norm that you’re just expected to have kids and that’s what everybody did. I mean, obviously our parents did it, that’s we became people on this earth. So it’s just something that’s always thought about. I mean, I grew up thinking; I was like, ok, I’ll get married, have kids, and that’s that. Because that’s what I saw my parents doing.
But as I got older, I don’t really feel that way anymore. So society taught me something, and I don’t really feel like I have to follow society. As you get older, obviously, you feel that way. You’re like; “Oh, well my mom used to tell me I had to do this and I don’t actually have to do this. I can decide it on my own.” So as I grew up; I mean, thinking about myself, I hated childhood. I did not like being a child. It’s not like I had a bad upbringing; my parents were awesome. I grew up in a really amazing community, and I had great friends. I just did not like being a child. I wanted to make my own money, I wanted to live on my own, I wanted to do whatever I wanted to do. That’s how I always felt. I think I thought, “Oh yeah, I’ll have kids.” when I was a little kid.
But then as I got older, I was like; god, I just want to be an adult. I just want to be in my 30s, because 30s seemed like the coolest age. That’s what it always looked like to me. And I still feel that way; I can’t wait for my 30s, I think it’s just going to keep getting better and better over time; at least it has. So I just wanted to be an adult, and as I’ve gotten to become an adult, I’m like, “F*ck yeah, being an adult is awesome. You can do whatever you want. If you want something you can make it happen.” If I want to buy something, I will make it happen. I will make the money to buy that something. I can just do adult sh*t and I don’t have to tell anybody anything; I just do whatever the f*ck I want. It’s awesome.
And I was so awkward growing up; I hated school, I hated feeling awkward, I hated being made fun of. All those stages that a teenager has to go through; I think most teenagers go through; f*cking suck. They’re just the worst. School; I hated tests and I was always better at like hands on things, and I hated taking tests. I just didn’t like being a kid, so I couldn’t wait to grow up, and then when I grew up I was like, “F*ck yeah, this is awesome!” I kind of was like, ok well I’m probably not going to have kids, but who knows? I’m always like, “Who knows?” Because I also didn’t think I was going to get married, and then I met my husband, and boom, we’re married. So I’m never say never.
But when I first met my husband, when we were just dating, I told him right away that I didn’t know if I wanted to have kids, so if that was a big deal to him, I wasn’t the person for him. So I told him straight up right away, and he was always like; you know, I think kids would be awesome but I could see why not having kids would be great, too. So he can see it both ways. He’s 7 years older than me, so I think I feel that stress of like; well I don’t want him to feel like an old dad, but I know plenty of people who had kids later on in life and they don’t feel like old dads. But I just never wanted him to feel like that, so I made sure that if he wanted to have kids then he knew that I wasn’t the perfect person for him. So that was something we talked about right away, and he knows that now.
To me, all of his friends; because he’s 7 years older, all of his friends already have kids. Some of them have kids who are like 7 or 8. They have kids that are growing up faster and faster, so he just sees that as a normal thing. For me, none of my friends, my aged friends, I’m one of the first ones married, and a lot of them, most of them, don’t have kids at all or aren’t married. So I don’t feel in any sort of rush. My womb is not asking to have children. There’s no internal screaming for a child inside of it; it’s quite fine with just the internal organs it has.
So I don’t have that want. I don’t feel ready for it. But people constantly ask me, and they constantly mention Brian. They’re like, “Well do you think Brian…?” I’m like, ok, remember, he is my husband, not yours so it’s kind of something you should lay off of. But I get the question all the time, and it’s just people making conversation but it still gives me a lot of stress.
So, in a couple of podcasts back, I told my little love story with my husband and our kind of ups and downs, and I talked about our pros and cons list. So if you didn’t listen to that one, go back and listen to it! Come on, start from the beginning. Who starts from the top and then works their way down? Come on. Come on man. I do that sometimes, but whatever.
So I talked about our pros and cons list with my husband, with our dating, with relationships. We talked about our pros and cons with each other, and we worked through and see if we could get through all of those cons. If we could work through those cons, and it was a huge relationship building mechanism for us, and it made our relationship so much better, and it’s been f*cking awesome since then. We still have our little fights, but the communication is so much better and we worked through all those issues.
So I was like; ok, maybe I’ll put together a pros and cons list. And it was really for this podcast, but I can keep this on my computer, and then go back to it if my womb ever calls for a child; I can say, ok let’s weigh out the pros and cons. And then I can figure it out there. And I wish more people would do that. Obviously, there are a lot of children born into this world, and people don’t really think about all the pros and cons, and think about how hard it’s going to be because, you can say whatever you want, but we all know raising a child is really f*cking hard and it’s really demanding. So you have to be completely ready for that. So more people should write out their pros and cons, and should really decide and look into every single facet of it; so that’s what I did. Yeah, let’s talk about it. I hope you like these pros and cons, because you most likely want. But don’t eat me. No, you can say whatever the f*ck you want.
Ok, pros. Let’s talk about the pros. Actually, it’s one pro. You guys I have one pro on my pros and cons list. And it is, Brian would be an awesome dad. And honestly, I would probably be a really good mom because I would love it so damn much. I never liked dogs, and then I got Jackson, and I would do anything for this dog. Thinking about that I’ll only have him for probably 15 years aches me to my core; and it’s a dog, you guys. It’s a dog. So if I had a child; oh my gosh, I would be probably an awesome mom. But Brian would be an awesome dad. He’s just so great and he loves kids; he loves his friends little kids, and he’s a cool guy, and he loves outdoor sports, so he would be so awesome. But that’s all I got guys. That’s literally all I have. That’s all I have for you.
Let’s go on to the cons then, because that’s two pages. So, ok. Starting with the cons of having a child. You have to grow that child inside of you. Obviously there are other options; you can adopt, you can have someone grow it for you. But we’re just saying, this option. Growing a child inside of you. First of all, that’s a real f*ck of your hormones. If you haven’t seen; oh my god, yeah recently there was a women. I heard this on the news, on the radio; a woman who was 5 months pregnant and poured boiling water on top of her boyfriend’s head because he was not paying enough attention to her. Sure, that b*tch is already crazy, but hormones really f*ck a person up. So not only does it f*ck up your mind; because based on my birth control experience; no need to email me and tell me about birth control alternatives or whatever, that’s fine. But birth control sent me in a spiral once, and my poor husband who had just married me, poor guy, was freaking out. But never once did I pour boiling water on my husband’s head. Because I know how to utilize my brain correctly.
But anyways, hormones really f*ck you up. And they also change other things. It ages you differently; your skin changes, body changes. So a lot of people get stretch marks. Most people their skin stretches out, because hello you’re growing a child. So then you have this little extra skin. And I know you’re like; you know, you just don’t care. And I get it, you have a child and you’re like; “F*ck yeah, I grew this child inside of me. This is a huge deal, I don’t care about this extra skin.” But me, who was incredibly, incredibly insecure; out of f*cking control insecure, and is just at 28 years old in the past year or two been able to control those insecurities and not felt insecure. Taking 10 steps back, when I’ve been working really, really hard to change my body and change my perception on myself; that’s really scary to me. So I get it, that you just maybe don’t care once you have your baby; you don’t care about those little scars, or those stretch marks or whatever, but that to me is really scary.
And I mean, what about scars? Like a C-section scar? You’ve got to go in a for a C-section. And I get it; it’s small, it’s hidden, whatever. But nobody loves scars. And then, hello?! Don’t act like all vaginas are the same. I talked about this; I talked about this maybe on my first episode, when I was listening to; what is it, Anna Farris, Unqualified, I think that’s her podcast. And she was talking to Olivia Munn, and Olivia Munn was saying maybe she didn’t know if she wanted to have kids, I think, and she’s talking about her friends, and her friends are telling her what their vagina looked like afterwards, and that’s a really scary thing, you guys. Nobody talks about this sh*t, and they were saying that it looks like there’s another vagina on top of the vagina.
Let’s picture that for a second. Take a moment; if you’re driving, pull over. Don’t get in a car accident. Just picture that. That’s very scary. And nobody talks about that. Yeah, sure, vagina is a muscle, it goes back to normal. But does it? Because nobody is going to admit; “Oh my vagina is disgusting now.” No, nobody says that. Hello. People keep that sh*t to themselves. But that’s scary. Just saying.
Another thing with having a child in the beginning; dying in childbirth. I know, this is rare now a days, we have modern medicine. But recently, just this, pretty much the same day as my wedding in April, one of my friends who was supposed to be in the wedding, but she got pregnant, what the hell, she wasn’t even thinking about me; b*tch. So she almost died in childbirth! Crazy, crazy fluke thing, and we almost lost her. And she lost almost all her blood! F*cking crazy sh*t. She had to be flight for lifed; insane. That’s really scary. She’s fine now, but that’s really scary, ok.
Oh my gosh; this, I can’t even believe I wrote this one down, but we’ve been talking vaginas freely, we might as well talk about the penis. So, I just never really even thought about this, but I was watching the HBO show, Shameless, and if you haven’t watched that show I don’t know what the hell you’re doing with your life, you absolutely need to, it’s f*cking awesome. I love that show so much, I really don’t like watching any other show on TV. If you don’t like my cussing here, you will not like that show. It’s out of control, it’s awesome. But there’s like a 14-year-old kid on there, and he is talking to her girlfriend, and she says how she doesn’t want to mess around with him because he’s not circumcised and it looks different than other ones. And he’s so bummed, so he goes and he gets circumcised himself, and he’s pissed that he wasn’t circumcised; whatever, whatever. So I just never thought about that; that was just something that was completely unknown, because I’m a girl, and I don’t have brothers, and I’ve just never had to deal with that thought process, thank god.
So I started to ask my friend, who just had a boy what she did. And then she starts talking about how they can always mess it up when they circumcise a child, and they can always decide later if they want to; but it’s better in sex, and all kinds of different things. And most people aren’t circumcising their children anymore; it’s like a thing of the past. I don’t know! But oh, what a pressure, to decide if your child is circumcised or not, because what if they hate you for it later and they have to get circumcised as an adult? That’s a lot of pressure, man. That’s a lot of pressure on you in deciding your child’s penis fate. Yep, that’s on the cons list.
Ok, so let’s talk about financials. First of all, how much does a kid; what does a child cost over 18 years? And honestly, I would want to pay for my children’s college, so 22 years? That’s a lot of f*cking money. A lot of money. And that’s not even including probably big trips. My friends just went on a trip, and they have two kids; wife and husband, and they spent probably over $10,000 to go to Disney World or Disney Land or whatever the hell the difference is. That’s so much money! So much money. And I get those are vacations that you’ll never get back and the memories are amazing; but holy sh*t, that’s a lot of f*cking money! And then you have to do clothing, and school, and presents, and sports, and everything on top of that. That’s so much money; I honestly don’t get how people have multiple children and pay for things! I don’t get it. And everybody says, “You just make it work. It all works out, you make it work.” And it’s like; well, that’s a big financial burden.
And I get it; you love your child, I get it. I’m not putting people down who love their children, but it’s just something that I think about when I finally make money for myself with my husband, and then it all goes towards diapers! Someone’s just sh*tting in it! That’s hard, right? That’s a hard thing. And then, of course, I personally want to pay for college. You don’t have to do that for your children, but I think it would be awesome to at least pay for part of it, or all of their college, if possible. If you have more than one child, that’s pretty hard depending on your financial situation, you know? So financial stuff is really scary.
And I get this; I actually have heard this multiple times, and even my friend said it just maybe yesterday or the day before, when kids have come up, and it’s like; well, you know, I’m scared. Or they’ll ask me; “who’s going to take care of you when you’re old?” Why would I even think that? I’m going to have children so somebody can take care of me and wipe my ass when I’m old? No, I’m not going to have children for that reason. That’s a really f*cked up reason. But I can say that if I don’t have children, I can save a lot of money to put myself in awesome old folks’ home when that does happen. So, balance it out here. Balance it out.
So here’s another one; the child relies completely on you. And you don’t get much sleep when you have one. So they cry a lot, which means you don’t sleep, and I talked about weight; it’s scary with pregnancy and how your body changes, and sleep plays a big role in your cortisol levels, which helps regulate your weight. So when you’re f*cking up your sleep schedule, you can’t really lose weight, and your having a harder time with your weight; that’s scary! And you don’t really think about that. You think that you’re not sleeping, but I think about it as like; this isn’t good for my overall body. And you’re just not yourself. Yeah. And kids are really dirty. We moved into our new gym space; and at our old gym he used to let dogs in, and then he made a no dog rule, but the gym owner has two kids. I know sure as f*ck my dog is cleaner than those two kids. I can tell you that much. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Kids are dirty.
Ok, we’re keeping going guys. Here’s another scary thing, because this is my total life; less working out. Sure, I’ve had so many women in my gym who worked out their entire pregnancy, and have been awesome, and then after they have kids they’re not able to as much because; say you work all day, and you either can go home to your child, or you can go to the gym. People are going to pick their children, duh! You want to hang out with your kids. And so I get it, you just have to make time. I’ve just seen so many people who used to be hard core gym people just really take a step back from the gym, and I don’t want to lose that. That’s something that I strongly believe in, and I’m really scared to lose that, because that’s really important to me. So I guess you just make it work, but I’ve just seen so many other people do the opposite. So that’s hard.
Another thing that’s huge for us, and everybody’s situation is different, but I work all the time, and that’s my job is constantly online, it’s constantly on my phone. My husband works all the time, too. He works Monday through Saturday. He’s always at his job. He travels, I travel, and I don’t know how he’d be able to change his schedule to work less, and I would have to hire a nanny to take care of the child so I could get my work done at home, and then I would feel guilty about paying someone to take care of my kid when I could still make it work, but not really. And one of my friends; she has a 2-year-old, and she has twins coming later this year. They were telling us that their daycare bill is going to be $3800 a month for those three kids. That’s $46,000; almost $46,000 per year. That’s easily someone’s salary! That’s so crazy! And that’s just for daycare. So I’m guessing she’ll be forced to be a stay at home mom, to save money, but how do you keep your sanity too? I could just never watch a child and get all my work done, and my work is really important to me and I love it so much. So that would be a hard balance act of him working all the time, me working all the time, us both getting our workouts in. and people do it; I get it. People do it. It’s just scary when you’re really content and happy with your life.
Another thing is like, it’s your duty as that parent to raise an upstanding citizen. And that’s an intense thing to take on. Children are forever; you can get out of the house you live in, you can get out of the relationship you’re in; whatever, you can get out of your job, but children, they are forever. Forever. And I was just listening to a podcast called Sword and Scale, and they just have; they have really f*cked up stories. But this one was about the Craigslist killer, if you guys remember the Craigslist killer. His parents were completely standing by him; they were like, no way did he do this. And he killed a person, and he almost killed others. Oh doggie has to go out. This guy. Sorry about that, he had to use the restroom.
So what if you raise a serial killer? Or just a killer in general, even if they just killed once. Like, hey-o, that f*cking sucks. And then you have to live with that for the rest of your life and then wonder what you did wrong. This kid was engaged, he was a medical student; nobody would have guessed. And then he killed people. What the f*ck! You have to live with that forever as a parent. It’s terrible. So I’m always kind of scared that I’ll have a serial killer as my child. But you know, maybe it’s not even your fault. Hopefully. Kids get in with the wrong crowd. There are many times in my life where I was hanging out with the wrong people. Luckily, I was never in too big of trouble, didn’t make too big of sh*tty decisions, but it’s so easy to get in with the wrong crowd and do the wrong sh*t. and yeah, that’s your child, even though you raise them a certain way; hey, they made bad decisions and they have to live with it now. That sucks. And you have to live with it; not just them.
And then, you know; kids don’t always just live with you for 18 years. I know multiple people who have had to move back home after college, and hang out there for a while. So what if you have a kid who is just not motivated, either? What the f*ck? Scary. And I always get really scared about school systems. Not scared, but we just don’t have good school systems near us, so it’s like; do you have to move, and move to a better school system? I know my parents did that when I was a little good for a good elementary school, but then I had like a sh*tty high school. I turned out ok. I think most people think “Ok.” Some people disagree with me on Facebook, but you know, “Ok.” But then it’s also scary; think about illness, or accidents, or just those scary things that I’ve seen people lose children. That must be the worst feeling that you could ever feel in your entire life, and that’s really scary to know that that could happen to you one day. So that really scares the sh*t out of me. I can’t help it; it just does. Those are just all the few minor things that run through my head every single time someone asks me if I’m going to have kids.
Oh, and! I didn’t even mention infertility. I have friends going through IVF right now, and they’ve been trying to have kids for two years; and before, they didn’t even know if they wanted to have kids, and then they were like; fine, let’s do it, let’s decide to have kids. And then they wanted it to so bad, and spend 2.5 years of not being able to have a kid. And going through all that hard, hard stuff; not only on you, but on your relationship. And even if you have a kid, all the relationship ups and downs. I know that me and my husband would discipline a child differently. And not that either one is correct, but I just know we’d have different opinions about that, and that’s hard on your relationship. I get so many questions; people asking me when I’m going to have kids, and these are from people who have kids, but never do they have amazing stories about how awesome having kids is. They say it’s the most love you’ll ever feel in your life, and I 100% don’t doubt that; it must be such a f*cking crazy feeling to adopt or have your first child, and that is your child to take care of. It must be the most heartwarming feeling; and I get that.
But so often, more often than not, I see people very unhappy being in that life. And they ask me about it, and I’m like; you just told me the worst story about how your kids are sick and they were throwing up all night, and then you’re probably getting sick. All those not fun stores, and then they’re like; so when you are going to do it? I’m like what? How are you trying to talk me into this, and it just seems like the worst all the time. And relationships have a hard time. My husband and I just got married, whatever, 6 months ago; why would I want to change that relationship any time soon? It is f*cking awesome, I don’t want to change that.
I think I just need to come up with a better tactic of how to answer that question. Maybe make people feel really bad with my answer. But it’s just an inappropriate question. Maybe I’ll just say, hey we’ll figure it out. I don’t know; I don’t know. Just say; you know, the lives we’ve made together just isn’t good enough yet, so we’re just going to make it better. I don’t know; some sh*t like that, where you’re like, I’m just going to keep saving my money and do cool-ass sh*t with it. Who doesn’t want to do cool-ass sh*t, and you just can’t always do that cool-ass sh*t. you can’t just get up and leave because you have a child there. Whatever, people make it work, but I’m a pretty stressful person, so I don’t know. I just don’t know! It’s just crazy.
If it weren’t for other people, I would never even think about this kind of stuff. It wouldn’t even cross my mind, because my husband and I are in such a great place. We got married, we bought our first home, we have our first dog, we’re getting a hot tub soon, we’re planning a trip to Costa Rica. We have cool sh*t on the agenda, and I know more cool sh*t is going to come up as we age, and more opportunities for other things; we can travel to so many places that we want to at this point, so why give that up. I’m not saying you have to give that up, it’s just you have to make changes that you wouldn’t necessarily have to change if you were not having babies. I just like what I’m doing now. I don’t know, that’s how I feel. It just sucks to have to feel that way all the time. Because my husband is not getting the same amount of questions that I’m getting, that’s for f*cking sure. I’m getting all the questions, and it doesn’t stress him out. He doesn’t have to house a child inside of him. He’s like; yeah, cool.
If I was like, “Hey, should we have kids?” He’d be like, “Sure. Whatever. That’s cool.” That’s how chill he is. To me, if he’s like, “hey do you want to have kids?” “Here’s my cons list, it’s 2 pages long hun. Read through it and get back to me.” That’s what I’d have to say to him.
So anyways. That’s my visual on having kids, and you know, I think more people should keep that in mind when you’re asking someone if they want to have kids, I just found out friends have been trying for even longer. My other friends have been trying for even longer than 2 years, and she’s not fertile. You would never know that unless you ask that or unless she gave that information up, but you pressuring; like, “When are you guys having kids?” And then she has to be, struck with that thought again. That’s really rude. So I think people should be more conscious of those questions, and keep that sh*t in mind, because you have no idea what people are going through mentally or physically. Or in their own household, either. So keep your f*cking thoughts to yourself, people! Dammit.
That’s all I have to say about that. I wish it was all butterflies and fairy tales, but I’m just f*cking realist over here, just putting real thoughts into the world. And maybe then other people with think about things, you know. Maybe you’ll think about; “Hey, maybe we should make a pros and cons list,” and, “Oh, maybe we’re still on the cons side, so maybe we should wait another year until we bring a child, so we can bring him into the best environment possible.” Right? You want to raise your child in the best environment possible. And have the best relationship with your child, too. F*ck, that sh*t is stressful. I’m just stressed out now, guys. Post Thanksgiving stress going on.
So that’s all I have to say about babies. I hope some of you can relate to this. Or some of you can; I mean, there’s nothing you can really do to help me out with this topic. But you never know; maybe in a couple of years; my owner of my gym did bet me that I’ll be pregnant a year from now. A year from Thanksgiving. He bet me $100, so I’m going to win that f*cking $100 that dumbass. Because this vagina is not turning into a double vagina any time soon. Please and thank you.
So anyways, that’s all I have to say about that. Next week I was going to do some reader questions. I did this on the 5th episode. I did just random reader questions, so whatever it was. So maybe it was fashion related, fitness, anything; I let people ask questions. So I’m going to do the same here. So if you have any questions, just go to www.PaleOMG.com. That’s where I share all kinds of sh*t; I share this podcast every week on there, so you can just click on this episode and leave a comment there. But you can always reach out to me on social media. Please don’t Facebook me, because you’re probably a troll. But you can totally reach out to me on other social media, like Instagram, because that’s just nice people hang out. You know, just nice people! So reach out to me there, and any questions you have. They don’t have to be baby related. You know, I’d actually prefer them not to be baby related, because I have no answers for that.
But if you have any other questions, whatever it may be, even if it’s like, “Hey, do you like Serial?” Well duh, I’m a f*cking human being, of course I like Serial. That was a bad example, but random questions, whatever you have. Please ask them, because I like doing those episodes. I think they’re really fun. And they bring up a ton of fun topic conversations that wouldn’t have gotten brought up if I didn’t ask that. So I’ll see you guys next week. I hope this topic has been therapeutic for you, because it didn’t really do any therapy for me. But you know, I’m still kicking it. Still kicking it in this house that we bought and putting savings into our 401K, or whatever the hell retirement is since I don’t get a 401K from www.PaleOMG.com, but whatever it’s called.
Anyways. I love your little faces, I can’t believe you even listen to my podcast. You’re the greatest humans ever, and it’s been real. It’s been wonderful this week. Somebody recommended that I do a podcast with Claire and Joy from Girls Gone WOD, and I f*cking love that idea because they are such cool human beings. So that’s probably the only people I’m going to record with. But, someday, maybe I’ll record with others. Until then I’ll just be talking about topics that nobody else will actually talk about. Like double vaginas.
So it’s been real guys. I hope you have a wonderful day. Do something cool today; do something nice for others. Leave a nice comment on social media. Do not be a negative; oh my god, you guys, wait one last. I’m sorry I’m talking about trolls, but it just always weighs heavy on my mind when it happens. This woman the other day on my Instagram was talking about my weight. Let’s first off; I clicked on her profile, I think she had two daughters, and this grown woman is talking about another woman’s weight on social media. What a great; oh man. Those poor children.
But she was talking about my weight, and saying that she missed when I was heavier; when I was like 30 pounds heavier when I was competing in Crossfit, and she hates that I’m “skinny” now. But remember, guys. Talking about someone else’s weight is something you should never do. We always think thoughts in our head, but use your brain and hold it in there. Don’t talk about someone’s weight.
This is what I’d like you to do. Go on to social media, and someone you follow, thank them for something they gave you; maybe a recipe, or inspiration in a workout, or fashion inspiration, or they gave you maybe baby food. If you’re a person who likes children, and they gave you a baby food recipe you could make at home. Thank those people; give them positive comments because you have no idea what they’re probably getting that you don’t always see. So share a positive comment with someone; spread the positivity, no matter what it is. Just be nice, and be a good influence to your children, if you do have daughters, especially. Do not comment on someone’s weight; in person, online, no trolling allowed, no matter what. Am I right, or am I right? Bullying is the worst. Adult bullying is the worstest.
So anyways. That’s all I got today guys. I don’t know if I ended it on a high note; I think I ended it on a pretty shitty note. But remember, leave your comments or questions on www.PaleOMG.com. I have a tone of recipes there if you’ve never been to my blog. I share my recipes, I share my workouts, and I share my fashion there. So I share all kinds of fun stuff with you guys, and I’m always coming up with new fun stuff, and it’s all free stuff to you. So come support me over there, and I’ll support your little cute faces and squish you and give you little kisses because you’re cute! Ok, that’s it, that’s it. I’m ending it. It’s been real guys. Hope you have a great day. Hope you kick ass at life. Go spread the positivity. X’s and O’s. Ok bye!!





Good for you!! I get so sick of people talking about how many kids they’re going to have like they’re just some number that gives them worth. They forget about everything you listed above. We have a 5 year old and aren’t having more kids due to medical issues and people constantly ask us when we’re having more , like one kid doesn’t make me a real mom or something. Most mom’s stop hanging out with me because my kid is out of the baby stage and we’re not having more. It’s ridiculous.
that’s so sad to hear! friendships definitely seem to change some when kids are involved which kind of stinks. but luckily not all of those relationships change!
My husband and I got married a few weeks before he deployed. He came home for R&R 9 months into a year deployment and the first thing his family asked me when we went to visit was ” why are you not pregnant yet?”…. aaahhhh, because he isn’t here.
Kids are no joke. They are a lot of work. If you want to continue being “selfish”, then don’t have kids. I loved being “selfish” and spending all my hard earned money on pretty things that I wanted and going places I just felt like going. I loved just hopping off the couch and running out to get something, or go to dinner, or leave for the weekend and have zero planning involved in the process. I don’t like waking up before 10 on the weekend. You can’t do anything like that with kids when they are young. You also don’t get to wake up to someone whispering to you “Mommy, I had a dream we were riding a brontosaurus together, and it was the best dream ever, so I had to come give you a hug.”
The first few months of having a kid (we have 2) is not fun. Its wonderful and magical that you have this fantastic human whom you look at and think “oh,there you are” like you knew you have met before, even though you have just met. But it sucks. not sleeping sucks. You look at your spouse/ significant other sleeping while you are feeding a baby and internally seethe because they are sleeping and you are not. Then you look at your baby sleeping on your spouse or them giving your baby a bath and feel a love for that person on an entirely higher level then you could even imagine before kids.
Kids magnify your relationship with your partner. if you didn’t have good communication before kids, it will get worse. if there were trust issues or insecurities, they will increase. But, if you have a good relationship where you support each other, it will be tested, but it will get stronger because you further realize how much someone has your back. Raising small kids takes the sparkle off things, but that also allows you to see how comfortable you are around your spouse and how much you are there for each other. Or it shows you how much someone isn’t there for you.
If you don’t know anyone who’s relationship got stronger by having kids – they probably still have small kids and are calling you to complain. Everyone needs that person. Everyone needs someone to call and moan about how someone didn’t unload the dishwasher, or left their socks on the living room floor AGAIN. those are petty things that are annoying and everyone complaints about. But that doesnt mean that their relationship hasn’t gotten stronger where it counts, that they haven’t gained a new level of respect for and commitment to each other. It is hard being in the thick of parenting babies to take an exhausted step back to really take perspective of how what a team you and your partner have become and how much you appreciate all that you do for each other.
let me rephrase my statement because it sounds jerky. Taking time for yourself, to be alone, to be with friends, to work, to travel, to be alone with your spouse, to exercise, to do anything that makes you happy is not being selfish, it is needed for your sanity, your finances, your health. Doing those things with a kid takes planning. Someone needs to watch your kid while you are alone or exercising ect. You can not sleep in on the weekend if your kid is up at 6 am unless someone else gets up with them. You can not just waltz out the door because you need to bring your kid and what ever they need or have someone watch them while you are gone. when you leave you have to be home at a certain time to let your sitter go home, or pick your kid up from daycare or school or wherever they may be. Doing things revolves around someone else’s schedule or multiple people’s schedule.
I think the phrasing i am looking for is spontaneous or not wanting to deal with logistics — not being selfish. my apologies.
Reading the summary, you’ve covered it all, Juli! 🙂 I can relate to pretty much all of it and my decision to be child-free. Popping a baby out is one thing, having kids and raising them well is HARD. My thing is, if I was going to do it, I would do it all the way. Being a parent would be the MOST important thing in my life above all else. And I don’t see that happening. There’s all kinds of reasons you so comprehensively outlined: Money. I’m a middle manager, got two post-grad degrees which were expensive, lost a shitload of money in the global financial crisis, and hopefully will have enough to keep me off the streets when I’m old and feeble but that’s about it. Definitely not enough to give a child what my parents could as boomers in very secure civil service jobs plus lifetime military pensions. Health. I have PCOS and possibly fertility issues (no thanks to IVF, it seems horrifying). I also have mental health issues which means to have a decent quality of life I need to control my stress levels and get a lot of sleep, which I imagine would go out the window with kids. And I would also potentially pass them down to my kids and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. I don’t live in the US but I know health care is freaking expensive and kids need a lot of it. Relationship. My bf 100% doesn’t want kids. It was one of his dealbreakers, and I was relieved! I am so happy and grateful to have found him, and I’m very content with just the two of us. My therapist says most of her married clients come to her for counseling after they have kids because their relationship changed so much and they’re struggling to deal. You also have to be prepared that you could be a single parent one day cause there are no guarantees you’ll stay with your partner forever and god forbid they should die when the kids are still young.
As for society – be Juli and tell them to STFU! We are meant to live in a cave in a tribe, not be struggling in nuclear families to raise kids in single-family households with no universal health care or decent maternity leave or affordable child care. You have to do what’s right for you, and there’s nothing to stop you having a ton of kids in your life (nieces/nephews/friends’ kids/foster kids/Big Brother Big Sister). When you consider that it’s about what you can do for kids and not what having a kid is going to do for you for your social status/ego/satisfy your relatives that won’t shut up.
that last sentence was amazing. you can really do a ton for children without having them. i love that!
I just listened to this today and I want to say: Don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks! You do you Juli! I agree with all your reasons and you shouldn’t have to apologize to anyone. I am as of yet undecided about the whole thing but I think anyone should do whatever they want and if anyone ever asks me I’m just going to say it’s none of their business. Keep doin you, you cool cat!
This was really brave to write. I feel like a lot of women feel like they can’t feel this way. I personally have a one year old. My husband and I knew we wanted one and then as soon as he was born, knew we were done. I always get asked, “was it a hard pregnancy/hard labor/is he a tough baby?” and the answer is no. It was super easy… all of it, but, like you, the overwhelming anxiety of being responsible for another person is too much. And, like you, we wanted to maintain a certain standard of living. Mostly, I worked really hard to get my body “back” after baby and I am unwilling to give that up again. That is an unpopular opinion, but I think a little self-preservation is important. Thanks for writing this.
we are totally taught that it’s not ok to feel that way. even when we have 1 child, we are taught that we should have more, like having 1 child is just not enough. society is quite interesting. and i’m totally with you with the self-preservation. i don’t understand why that’s selfish. taking care of yourself and knowing what is best for you is not selfish, it’s healthy.
You are awesome! Thank you for calling bs on the many “You’ll love your body even more!” lies. I’ve had 4. I don’t love my body more. I don’t have super awful stretch marks, but the skin is never going to lie flat again. My cramps are so much worse since having kids. I have a permanent diastasis of the pubic symphysis. It was very painful during my pregnancies and now running long distance (like a mile) is out, as are inner thigh adductor exercises. And while I’d say I look the same vaginally, it took 8 MONTHS after baby number one to get back in the saddle, if you will, due to slow healing of my third degree tears. I was in agony for months, unable to stand for long stretches or use the bathroom without screaming. Our society loves to underestimate the danger and misery of pregnancy.
This is not to say that I don’t love my kids. I adore them. But it’s not easy and we need to stop pretending it is. My oldest has been battling depression with psychotic tendencies for years. Will he be able to head off to college in a few years, or am I going to have to handhold him through his young adult life? He’s super smart but can’t take care of himself. The next one down is dyslexic. He does pretty well thanks to spell check, but we have to stay on top of his homework with him or he falls behind. My next is making life difficult by hating on Dad since he got back from Iraq (civilian deployed in support of special forces). She is super sweet with me, but he can’t seem to get out of the dog house with her and they are driving me up a wall. The youngest is super busy with activities, so we are super busy with driving her around. This is a hard time. Taking care of me has taken a backseat for a long time. Sure, that’s expected with four kids, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.
I will say my husband and I are closer due to it all. He is the sort that sees how lucky he is to have had his DNA passed along to the next generation at great expense to his wife. More guys need to acknowledge the physical and emotional toll their partners pay, and society needs to stop taking it for granted.
I would not change my decision to have my kids, though I would have done some things differently. But it really bugs me to hear other women questioned about their baby-making plans. It’s a personal decision and not up for public debate. You can be a happy, fulfilled person without kids and it is disgusting to see people argue otherwise. So go on with your bad self and tell those nosy people to fuck off!
thank you for sharing your experience. nobody talks about those things unless it’s your VERY close friend and i don’t have many close friends who have had children yet. all you see is people’s smiling photos on social media and think that everything is great. so thank you for sharing your honest experience with both pregnancy and the challenges of having children. those topics are real and should be talked about more. so again, thank you for just sharing. it’s really cool.
Hi Juli!
I have really been trying to hone in on my hunger cues because I LOVEEE food and love eating, which leads to overeating and snacking. I always try to stop when I’m satisfied, and I do super well early in the day during breakfast and lunch, but then 4:00 rolls around and I need snacks before dinner. Then I eat dinner and want a treat before bed. Halp!! How do I combat this?
i’ll definitely address this topic!
This podcast is so spot on and perfectly timed. My husband and I have been married over two years now (together about 8). We are both 29, place an emphasis on health, and enjoy to travel and have fun. My husband would have kids now if I wanted to, but I am just not interested (at least not yet). This thanksgiving, as with most times we are with his family, I was asked when (never if) we are going to have children by all of my husband’s family, including his mother and aunts. I have always found it incredibly invasive and offensive, especially since we both have busy jobs which we love. I regularly leave these events feeling self conscious and bad about myself, something I have worked hard to stop since my teenage years.
It was a relief to listen to this podcast and realize I am not alone. Your cons list includes just about every single one of my concerns with having children. I always find it so astonishing how people pressure me to have children when it is such a huge responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Also – if my decision could be changed so easily am I really ready to be a mother?
Anyway, thanks for addressing this topic from a perspective that is rarely acknowledged. Love your podcast!
it’s truly rarely acknowledged and then women are thought to be bad people for even feeling that way (which is something I get attacked for constantly) so thank you for appreciating this topic!!
i’m not sure why you feel as though it is scary. i’m just speaking the truth and how i feel, but it’s not scary. having a child you are not ready for or do not have the means to raise, is scary. i think it’s important for women to think through these things to understand if they are truly ready and prepared to bring another human into the world and give them the best life possible. i’m not sure why weight is such a touchy subject for you but being aware and worried about that sort of thing is ok, it’s just not as important to others. if you read the comments in this post, you’ll see that many have the same worries or have even had children and still connect with the worries i have. being honest about a person’s fears is not scary, it’s just honest.
Hi Juli,
I have a request for a podcast topic. Taking a side trail off of the having babies topic, it would be great to hear your thoughts on the making babies topic, lol. It’s a bit more down and dirty, but some information about a more organic approach to sexual health would be really helpful. For example, do you have some recommendations for natural alternatives to birth control? Toxic-free protection? How to keep things spicy? It’s a personal topic, so a lot of the health/nutrition-based podcasts I tune into have not addressed it. Any insight would be really helpful!
You’re the best!
xoxo,
Kristina
hey kristina! i’m definitely not the person to talk to about this kind of stuff. i’m still on hormonal birth control and i don’t know much about natural alternatives, so it might be worth asking someone else, maybe diane sanfilippo or liz wolfe on their podcast: http://balancedbites.com/podcast/. one has a child and one doesn’t, so they may have more information with that!!