Being Baby Crazy Doesn't Make Me Crazy

Okay, okay- so as cliché as it sounds I have to admit- I am baby-crazy. Whenever I am walking down the street, shopping in a store, watching a TV show, sitting in a park- all I notice are babies. Pretty boys, breathtaking girls, standout dressers- all passersby do not warrant my glance or consideration, save for babies. I notice every single baby in my vicinity, regardless of any and all inordinate circumstances. Yet I am confident in my knowledge that I am in no way ready to have a baby of my own. So how does this make sense? I ask myself on an almost daily basis.

I seek out babies to an almost creepy degree- yet I know that I will not be ready to have one for years to come. Is this my maternal clock beginning to kick in? Is this Mother Nature's way of telling me to find a serious boyfriend fast? Is this a result of the film industry's brainwashing? Or do I just love to look at adorable things for small amounts of time? This has always been my preferred relationship with dogs- I love other people's dogs for 2-3 minutes before moving on. However, it is not socially acceptable to walk up to someone and ask if it is okay to pet their baby- thus my longing for baby contact is never fulfilled. I am left high and dry and without the touch of super soft skin in a world full of no-tears shampoo and polka-dot strollers.

The fact that I am soon to be 23 does not really enter into my concern. Many people do not have babies for years and years after they are my age. Yet I feel as if my maternal clock is trying to tell me something. Something along the lines of preparation. "You've been ready for quite a few years," she is telling me. "So you better start getting ready to pop one out soon." This is not something that I cannot argue with- at the same time that it is not something with which I can agree. Families happen to everyone at different ages. Some girls have their first babies at 13; some women have their first babies at 50. There is no set time, no set schedule. This is what makes motherhood much more of a gift than a requirement. When I am ready to have a baby I will know. And until then I will simply continue to stare at them in parks and take as many babysitting opportunities as I can find on Craigslist.