Unintended cruelty

I was randomly surfing the net today when I came across a mommy blog. In her posts, the blogger shared insights on how hard and long a journey she and her husband took before conceiving their twins. And during this time, she wrote, they didn’t tell many friends about their problems and suffered in silence when people questioned them about their lack of children after being married for x number of years.

Besides the pesky “when are you getting married” and “do you have a boyfriend” questions, the other most annoying query to me is “when are you having children”. Of course, if the question was put across to me politely and in a non-intrusive manner, I would give my most honest answer: that, yes, we would really like to have a child next year. But it irks me when the older folks keeps harping on the issue, as well-intended their intentions are.

What if, like the blogger and her husband, we are also having difficulty conceiving? Wouldn’t such a question be like a dashing a sword through our hearts? It wasn’t too long ago that we made that decision but if we had been trying for a while now, aren’t these questions going to make us feel worse than ever?

This is why I don’t like to talk about the stork and its parcel with the parental units. Because until we see that line on the pee stick, the future is still uncertain. And because we have only been married for a year, I don’t see why there should be so much pressure on us to produce a baby, simply because we are the most likely candidates to start a family.

So far, my mom has been great about it. She’s advised me not to delay childbearing, using herself as an example (she had the Sista and I at 30 and 34 respectively, late by her generation’s standards), and then left me alone because she knows how I hate to be nagged at. The in-laws, on the other hand, are understandably more enthusiastic, given that Mr Thick is their youngest son and neither of his two married brothers have children. And it may sound disrespectful but sometimes, I really wish they would drop the case and stop asking these personal questions.

Because I don’t know when we will be able to start a family and it makes me feel miserable and frustrated when people are prying and poking around. There, I’ve said my fear out loud.