Ashley,
This may sound a bit cold, but I want to express the other side of things (and just vent my frustration with the human race).
One thing to keep in mind that most people overlook is the fact that you aren't required to have kids. There are almost 7 BILLION people on the planet. Each one of them requires resources to sustain them. Honestly, we don't NEED any more people.
Nobody ever stops to think about their breeding either. Do you have anything to add to the Gene Pool? If you’re a jobless bum who didn't do very well in school, has no talents or skills beyond milking the system, or is sick all the time; chances are the planet could live without you passing all of that on. I know plenty of people with Genetic Faults that insist on reproducing. "All Children are precious. It's not their fault." True. It's the parents who knew they had poor genes that are to blame. (I know, let the flames fly.) I’m just one of those jerks that believes that Human Evolution has come to an abrupt halt or might actually be moving backwards. It’s a statistical fact that highly intelligent people, on average, have fewer children than those with less impressive IQs. We get so caught up in how we CAN save everyone and we CAN have cute little babies, that we never give any thought to whether or not we SHOULD. (My single greatest complaint about human beings is that we spend more time thinking about what we "have a right to do" than we do thinking about what is "the Right Thing To Do".) Increasing over population will lead to greater hardships on today's kids when they become adults.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest: I don't know you, but I have to agree with what some of the others have said. You're stopping to think about it, not taking it lightly, and that leads me to believe that you just might be a good mother.
If you're scared of babies (I’m scared of poopy diapers.), there are a TON of kids out there waiting to be adopted. Many of these kids have already seen what a bad parent is. (People who should be spayed or neutered) All these kids want from you is Safety and Love. You'll look like a hero to them if you just care. In my opinion, adoptive parents in general are heros who give of themselves to take on the responsibilities that someone (who probably shouldn't have had kids) failed on.
Now, for those who will attack me on my 2nd paragraph: I am 32 years old, am never sick, and have been employed in some capacity since I was 14. I’ve had a stable good-paying job for the last 12 years. My IQ tests indicate that I’m in the upper 2% of the population. This morning, I bench pressed 400 lbs and then ran 5 miles. I don’t need chemicals to function, take great pride in my ability to out-work others, and my best trait is that I’ve been married to a woman smarter than I for almost 3 years. Just so you’ll know that I practice what I preach…I do NOT believe that anything I just listed makes me at all "special" and am yet to Sire any Children of my own because I’m not sure that I really have anything that needs to be added to the Gene Pool. Why should I be so audacious as to insist that I reproduce when there are better people than me out there who should be passing on their traits first? Why make more babies without first providing for the ones that are already here and in need of a loving home?
(I know, sometimes I can be a real downer. Sorry. I’ll try to be more upbeat next time.)
