An apparent baby storm

Happy Valentine's Day! It's raining babies. It seems like everyone I know is having a baby. My cousin had a beautiful nearly 10 lb boy this week- Feburary 9th. Look! This is Kelly, Micha and little Erik.

Then my very dearest friend from the 7th grade tells me that she's having a baby and it's due October 3. She is very excited even though she and her fiancee were quite surprised by this development. They were planning to get married at Christmas, but in the last three days they decided to move their wedding date up by about 8 months. I'll be sending them ¨What to expect when you're expecting¨as soon as I find it on Amazon. (Don´t worry I'm not ruining the suprise becasue she doesn't really do blogs.)

Meanwhile, I have discovered that I am one of the oldest childless women ever seen in the town of Rinconada Llicuar and I hear surprise about this all the time from my new friends and neighbors. I´m spending a lot of time lately explaining that Americans tend to get married when they're a bit older and I'm met with an axiom about how the value of the ¨goods¨decrease after age 25. (Raise eyebrow here.)



Since I'm only 28 years old not having kids has never, ever come up as a criticism against me. In fact, not having kids has so far been a credit to my good sense as I think it did actually help with getting the master's degree and all. But lately, since I'm spending my spare time at the Miss Rinconada Llicuar pageant where 15 year old girls from the campo model bikinis after they perform traditional Peruvian dance numbers it's all kind of messing with my head. I'm wondering what does it mean to get married and have kids in life. It that really the point of it all? And is it always all tied up with traditional ideas about beauty and women competing against one another for power?

I actually never did want to have kids. I remember my friends in high school deciding what the names of their future children would be and me saying, ¨What about pet names?¨ I think that in the last 3-5 years my complete disdain for the idea has left me. I am open to the idea in life, but not now, not yet. This is fortunate for me because if you get pregnant and decide to keep your baby as a Peace Corps volunteer you get ¨medically discharged¨so basically if you get pregnant they kick you out.

The social pressure is just really interesting because it's quite cross cultural. My friends and family of the same age in the US are having babies and really everyone in Rinconada Llicuar makes crazy comments about me not being married and "Don't you want kids? It's bad to have kids when you're too old." Then they make jokes about me taking their kids back to states with me. I never in a million years thought that I would find myself explaining that, "No I'm not going to take any children back with me- at all." It's odd. It is interesting.

I'm sooo happy for my family and friends who are making great waves in the world and will make wonderful parents and dear god people, please spread the word that babies do not a woman make.