After a prolonged absence - 10 months? - decided to try another blog entry.
The problem is that while I'm happy to write about myself, I don't want to post anything which might embarrass another family member, which rules out 'funny stories' about family life, and I basically lead a quiet and ordinarily boring sort of life. Yep, get up and eat my oatmeal, send the kids to school (next week, YEAH!) kind of stuff. Nice to live but repetitive to read, I'm sure.
I've got strong opinions - pro Canadian government-funded health care, pro government-funded auto-insurance, somewhere out on the socialist left-fringe politically for most issues, although like many people I duck and flannel on hot-button issues that bring out any conservative tendencies.
Can we say abortion? Sure we can, I've never had one, never want to be in the position of contemplating one, and want nothing to do with dictating how any other woman has to respond to that issue. Given how many women half-killed and actually killed themselves getting illegal abortions prior to the 1970's I have a hard time saying making it illegal is a good thing. Having viewed via ultrasound my own personal interior astronauts looking quite human (even if totally unable to survive outside me at 11 weeks along) and counted fingers and toes as they swung into view... well, it may be another's decision, but I don't think it could be mine.
Since I have two kids, not ten, you can assume I believe in some limitations. I firmly believe in taking precautions, an approach helped by the astounding cost of raising kids. I am also not what one might call a 'natural' mother. I was dubious about the whole baby process, not all that eager to have kids, had them anyway, discovered that your own kids are much more interesting, cute, intelligent, funny (and so on) than any one else's and that said, found two kept me more than busy enough. Coming from a Roman Catholic background, without thinking about it particularly, I simply accepted kids as a normal consequence of getting married. My husband doesn't come from a Roman Catholic background, but his view is fairly similar - 'get married, have kids' is a normal part of the adult agenda.
I find it interesting that more people are staying single or are choosing not to have children. Both my parents (44 years) and my in-laws (54 years) are still married and John and I are going to be celebrating our 19th anniversary later this month, with all three marriages following the traditional 'male primary bread-winner/female child-raiser' model. However, neither my brother nor sister have chosen to have kids, and neither has John's brother. His sister had one kid. Three of the four of them are in relationships, one married, two not. Enough evidence for me that we're on the cusp of real change in our collective expectations of what being an adult brings.
