Future Mommies of America

I got a little insight into my oldest daughter’s mind this morning. She’s five and a half now. We were standing in the kitchen when out of the blue she asked, “Mom, do I have to work?” My mind started racing. What did she mean? Does she have to work now? What does she mean by work and why does she think it’s a “have to” kind of a thing? I settled on, “Most adults need to work to pay for food and clothing and a place to live. I think you’ll like whatever job you choose.” I didn’t want to add, “But if you marry a nice man and have babies and you can afford it, you can stay home if you choose.” Best to answer the question asked. But clearly that issue was on her mind, because she replied, “Well, I’m going to be a veterinarian and I’m going to bring my baby to work because I don’t want to leave my child at home.”

Later in the day we talked more about it, and about how a mommy and daddy can choose to have one or the other of them stay at home with the baby if they have that option. She asked how they pick whether it’s the mommy or daddy, and I said usually it’s the mommy because she nurses the baby. Naturally, her next question was, “Well what do they do if the daddy stays home?” I told her he might bring the baby to mommy’s work so they could nurse, or he could feed the baby bottles of expressed breast milk. She thought about that for a minute and finally said, “I want my baby to be a girl.” Guess she’d worked out all the details in her mind!