The Maternal Instinct
Meet Chloe and Dexter. (If you hover over the picture, you can see which one is which.) Chloe is an Australian native flowering plant and Dexter is a good ol’ ivy. Both are very sturdy plants, like to grow all over the place, take little maintenance care (it’s okay if I forget to water them one day) and are basically the perfect plants for a beginner gardener like me.
And, given I can’t get a cat and I probably can’t get a dog, I named them.
If you talked to the me of only five years ago, I would have told you that I’m not mother material. The whole maternal instincts kicking in? I never figured that would happen to me. I wasn’t even the kind of little girl who wanted baby dolls to take care of; it just plain didn’t jive for me.
These days? Well, I don’t know if it’s marriage or if it’s just plain time, but I find myself aching for a family. My husband ‘divorced’ his family before I met him, so I’ve never met any of them. My family and I aren’t on the best of terms either. While I consider some new friends I’ve made here like family, it’s not quite the same as getting started making your own family.
Health issues (and financial issues, too) prevent us from starting to try just yet and it’s dragging me down. Over the past… Oh, I don’t know how long it’s been now, but what started out as an exciting but scary idea has now become a small ache in me. So, until I get my health straightened out and we get a bit of a nest egg, I’ll be taking care of Chloe and Dexter and hoping that will ease the ache for the time being.
I guess I am mother material after all.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I’m in the same boat! If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here:-)
November 26th, 2008 at 12:12 am
[...] Children by JM With my maternal instincts well and truly kicking in, I have babies and children on the brain for today’s [...]
November 28th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Thanks for letting me know, Shannon.
I’m sure I’ll be talking about it a lot in the future.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
[...] couple weeks ago, I mentioned how my maternal instincts have kicked in but Mr. JM and I aren’t in a position yet where we feel comfortable starting to try for a [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
[...] the other hand, Dexter is doing quite well! Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Long Relationships. It’s Free! « [...]