The other day, I was in Safeway—buying Diet Dr Pepper, naturally—when I heard the guy up ahead of me say something to his friends that I was positive I must have misheard. Specifically, what I heard him say was "and there's this really awesome parasitic wasp that drives its victims like cars." Now, I like parasitic wasps. I am, one might say, unduly fascinated by parasitic wasps. So I tend to assume that when I hear other people bring them up in conversation, I'm hearing them wrong.
I began shamelessly eavesdropping...and wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, he was talking about insect parasitism! Yay! As the conversation swung toward blood flukes, I interjected to note that blood flukes were probably largely responsible for the evolution of gendered reproduction. He looked, in a word, delighted.
What followed was the largest, rowdiest, happiest discussion of parasite behavior I have ever been involved with outside of a group of my friends. All five of the people involved had read Parasite Rex, and parthenogentic reproduction came up, gleefully.
I think I may have met my male equivalent from a nearby parallel dimension.
You're spot on, actually. My husband just finished grad school, I just finished law school, and neither of us are employed yet. We're not doing all that good a job taking care of ourselves, although our longer term prospects are still good. I can't even have my cats here yet. I think it would be very irresponsible to have kids now, although we do want them later.
I'm just almost thirty now so I get the whole "YOUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCK IS TICKING." (to which I usually reply, "No, your grandmother clock is ticking, mom." Because it's usually my mom. Then I tell her "Spoil your grandcats while you have custody." because she's keeping my two cats until one of us has a real job.)
My "clock" never ticked until a hypomania in Sept 95, when my son was 18 mo. I beat it down severely--I'd been a wreck his first year, and I wasn't out of the woods yet.
I was almost 35 when I married, and 4 days & 40 yrs when my son was born. We used condoms, and family history prevailed over dire warnings of fertility problems at 35 or so: TWO cycles later I was preggers. I wanted an Oct. kid, I got yet another January birthday, blast it.
I had the amniocentesis that's done earlier than the one with the needle through the abdomen. No detectable genetic issues. Because of low amnio fluid levels a week before my due date, I had a C-section, wiht a healthy baby at the end of it.
I am not a natural mother. I was not a baby mom. I had too much overwhelm to function well, but enough sene to get help. Later, when a long series of problems took us to a psychiatrist, we were both diagnosed with bipolar disorder (came from both sides of the family, not just mine, I found out later). He was more than a handful, and I was somewhat cluelss and definitely overwhelmed. I had sense enough to get help, and I began seeing his therapist, who helped me learn how to be a healthier mother to my son.
Eventually we both got our medications titred correctly, and I have a teen with whom I have a very good relationship.
I have overcome most of the obstacles in front of me: none f them were due to being an older mom! So yes, it is your mother's clock chiming.
It's become a hilarious point of contention between mom and me. She sees pictures of me with my niece (my husband's niece--my brothers are much, much younger than me) and goes "Doesn't it make you want one of your own?"
"No."
"But WHY?"
"Because when she is whiny and poopy I can hand her back to her mother. She's whiny and poopy a lot."
I don't like babies. I like kids. Little kids even. Babies not so much. If I could grow a child in a vat and decant it when it was 19 months old and starting to form coherent words I'd be happy as a clam.
geeky
June 30 2010, 23:45:20 UTC 7 years ago
I'm just almost thirty now so I get the whole "YOUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCK IS TICKING." (to which I usually reply, "No, your grandmother clock is ticking, mom." Because it's usually my mom. Then I tell her "Spoil your grandcats while you have custody." because she's keeping my two cats until one of us has a real job.)
July 1 2010, 03:07:18 UTC 7 years ago
I was almost 35 when I married, and 4 days & 40 yrs when my son was born. We used condoms, and family history prevailed over dire warnings of fertility problems at 35 or so: TWO cycles later I was preggers. I wanted an Oct. kid, I got yet another January birthday, blast it.
I had the amniocentesis that's done earlier than the one with the needle through the abdomen. No detectable genetic issues. Because of low amnio fluid levels a week before my due date, I had a C-section, wiht a healthy baby at the end of it.
I am not a natural mother. I was not a baby mom. I had too much overwhelm to function well, but enough sene to get help. Later, when a long series of problems took us to a psychiatrist, we were both diagnosed with bipolar disorder (came from both sides of the family, not just mine, I found out later). He was more than a handful, and I was somewhat cluelss and definitely overwhelmed. I had sense enough to get help, and I began seeing his therapist, who helped me learn how to be a healthier mother to my son.
Eventually we both got our medications titred correctly, and I have a teen with whom I have a very good relationship.
I have overcome most of the obstacles in front of me: none f them were due to being an older mom! So yes, it is your mother's clock chiming.
July 1 2010, 21:09:00 UTC 7 years ago
"No."
"But WHY?"
"Because when she is whiny and poopy I can hand her back to her mother. She's whiny and poopy a lot."
I don't like babies. I like kids. Little kids even. Babies not so much. If I could grow a child in a vat and decant it when it was 19 months old and starting to form coherent words I'd be happy as a clam.