Do some of you ever feel that despite all of your ambitions and efforts to be the most successful woman you can be, you still wish that your life was in a completely different direction?
I do.
Almost every day I see another post on Facebook of someone joyfully telling the world that they've just got engaged, married, and eventually, yep, pregnant. Now I know life isn't a competition and it's not exactly like I'm in a rush for something as life-changing as having a baby to get here before it's the right time, but my intense baby fever can't help trick my mind sometimes.
According to some of the top definitions of the Urban Dictionary, baby fever is defined as: "when a girl starts feeling a strong desire to have a baby, possibly to the point of obsession." or "the yearning one gets after holding, seeing, or being around a baby. Typically happens in childless women of a young age." and finally, "when your girlfriend starts poking holes in your condoms cuz she's trying to get pregnant ASAP."
Those definitions aren't limited to the borderline unusual acts people do when baby fever hits. If you automatically run to the baby section of Target and gasp at how adorable little the shoes are then your baby fever senses are tingling. If you hear a unique name and then quickly tap through your phone to get to the notes app so you can save the name as a possible name for your future child then your baby fever has reached its peak.
If you constantly check when you're ovulating via the period tracker app then honey, your baby fever is incurable at this point.
But as the baby fantasies get stronger and stronger, we take a step back and realize that we're only in our 20s and there's still so much we want to do in life. Maybe we want to obtain a masters and doctorate degree. Maybe we want to swim with the sharks in Hawaii and zip line across the rainforests in South Africa. Maybe we want to get married and enjoy our honeymoon in Santorini to the fullest without any distractions.
Maybe we want to build our own empire without a man.
Not that it's impossible to be successful and have kids, but we realize that now we aren't capable of doing both yet. At the end of the day, we want to be the best we can be and pour into our own lives first before we dedicate ourselves to a child. Right now these are our selfish years and as much as our hearts cherish the thought about having our own mini-me to take care of, we realize it can wait years from now until that happens even if our society has a tendency to pressure us into building families before our "biological clock" runs out.
That being said, here's to the women who are the epitome of "Me, myself, and I" by Beyoncé but still struggle with their undeniable obsession with adorable babies.
Keep grinding and being selfish for now because when the right time comes, it'll be worth the wait.
