I met up with a good friend not too long ago and along with our other girlfriends we had a lovely lunch. She was up visiting home and we all took the chance to have a proper catch up. This was especially important to us all as she announced the other week that she is pregnant. Yep, it’s started. My close friends are beginning to have children.
She is extremely happy about this but freely admits it wasn’t planned and she was freaked out at first. Not because she didn’t want kids but because she just didn’t think she was ready at this point in her life. We all chatted about our own expectations (in the way only girls can) and related back to what we thought we wanted when we were younger.
When I was about 15, I had my life plan mapped out:
- Married by 20 (with a huge dress- I blame Barbie for that one haha)
- First child by 22
- 3 kids
- To stay at home and look after my children
- Loving husband
- Be a nursery nurse
It was that simple. As you can tell, I was a very home focused person and very much focused on the idea of raising a family. Things however have not turned out like that, as I grew older my goals in life changed somewhat. I began to realise that yes, while I still want some of the above (I also have a girls baby name picked out haha), I also want more life experiences for myself before I begin to influence those of my own children.
I have places I want to travel to, things to see and I want to be selfish for a little bit longer. I don’t mean selfish in an awful way, just that I want to do what I want to. When I have kids that will be me saying that everything I do is for another person and I will be happy when that day comes. I am also very thankful that I am not married as some of the men in my past wouldn’t have been the most reliable husband material!
I still want the kids and the caring husband and the family but I also want to feel like I’ve excelled in my job and travelled some more. In my daily job I feel so happy that I get to influence the life of so many children who don’t exactly come from the happiest of homes and if I can make them smile and have an excitement to learn then I am happy. I think that has suppressed my want to have kids so young. I have 28 of them every day to look after!
I am so happy for her, as she is happy and I can’t wait to spoil her little one (I’m sure it will be a girl). I am going to continue just changing my mind back and forth one day at a time - I suck at trying to stick to schedules and deadlines anyway ...
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| {Via) |
Are you where you thought you would be when you were younger? Did you follow a life plan or just go with the flow?
