It’s 2017, yeah, but being a mom one day is still a foregone conclusion for many women. It was even one for me growing up, but as I get older, that’s starting to change. I’m seeing that there’s more to life than kids—and I’m totally fine with that.
- I’m nowhere near ready to be a mother. I want to be a mom one day, that’s for sure, but no way in hell could I raise a kid right now. I used to think that I wanted kids in my early twenties when I was thriving and had the energy to run around with them. Now I want to do things like get drinks with my friends on a Thursday night, and I’m slowly realizing that I’m just not ready like I thought I would be at this age.
- I still have plenty of time anyway. Long gone are the days where women had to have five kids by the age of 25. More and more women are waiting longer to start families and instead are focusing on career and just living life. It’s not like my eggs are going to shrivel up in the next five years. I’m fine with waiting.
- I want to travel. I want to see more of the world and take in everything around me. I want to be able to get up and go whenever for whatever reason. Traveling is a huge passion of mine and I don’t want to be held back from that at the moment. When I was younger, I didn’t have such a desire to get up and go. Now, I see it as a blessing to be able to live in and experience new places.
- I don’t want an added responsibility right now. Being on my own right now is working out pretty well. I have myself to take care of, and that’s all I want for now. I have plenty of adult responsibilities—work, bills, family and friends, etc.—and I don’t need to add a baby into the picture.
- I want to spend time with my other half alone. Of course, I want to see my soulmate as a father—that’s a huge part of life that I don’t want to miss—but I want to spend more time with him first. I want to get to know him even better on our own. I want to spend time with him and do things together without having to divide our attention. That’s how you really learn about someone and get to know them more deeply. If we’re going to raise a child together, that’s incredibly important.
- I’m still figuring myself out. I still don’t know what I want in life! I’m still growing and changing and that’s something I want to figure out before having kids. Finding myself is simultaneously a challenge and a beautiful thing. I need to figure out who I really am and establish my place in life before I throw a kid into the mix.
- I want to fall in love with other things first. I want to fall in love with new things in the world. I have a fire inside of me to see and learn about things from all over. As I’m getting older, that fire is growing even more. I have more inspirations and passions to do and try new things.
- I’m still half selfish. Let’s be honest, I’m not completely selfless yet. I know when I have kids, I will be but right now, I’m still a little selfish. I still want to be alone and do what I want, when I want. I felt more into the idea of kids when I was younger because I didn’t realize how much of my life would change.
- I want to be lazy while I still can. I want to sleep—and I mean really sleep. I want to take up the entire bed and watch Netflix on a rainy Sunday afternoon in bed. I never have a real sleep schedule and I always mix it up depending on the day and what I’m doing. Sometimes I stay up until 3 a.m., sometimes I go to bed at 10 p.m. It all depends on my mood, and I’m not ready to give up the laziness!
- Work is a new priority for me. I’m young but I’m growing every single day. As I grow, I see more and more how much my career is something I’m still climbing up in. I’m trying to find my spot, to give all my effort into my career. I want to be fully into that right now. Taking time off to have a baby just doesn’t seem appealing right now.