Baby, Baby, Baby

Parenthood...

Kind of a scary topic. I am in a committed relationship where children will happen eventually. The art of raising children is an area where my feminism may be tested or at the very least, challenged. As someone who is not a parent, I have a lot of strong opinions about how I would want to raise my children. I say now that I would never paint a room blue or pink; I would never take a doll away from a boy or a truck away from a girl. Nor would I ever push a children from something they genuinely enjoyed. My partner is a man of all men. He rebuilds cars, he plays in the mud, he builds everything and I know he would want a son to do all of those things with. But what if we only have girls? Will he feel the same way about his daughter picking up a hammer or a wrench and helping him build? Those questions run rampant throughout my mind. I know if I ask him he would say it wouldn't matter to him either way, but it sure does matter to society. Society dictates everything! They are the ones constantly watching and judging your every move and every mistake.

As a person who wants to have babies, I feel slightly slighted by feminism. I am a straight woman, in love with my boyfriend and I want a family. Families and feminism do not seem to coincide, at least not in the academic sense. It is rare in feminist education that one learns about feminism families, almost as rare as learning about feminist love relationships. As a feminist, I hope to stick true to my feminist values and belief system. I expect my children to be raised in an environment where equality is valued and seen, where girls are treated the exact same as boys and where there is no question to whether or not a girl is as a good as, can do the same things as, boys.

I expect my partner to appreciate the fact that our children can be whoever it is that they want to be. Equality and respect are two aspects of my feminism that I hold closest to my heart and my head. Relationships are hard and adding children into the mix makes it even harder! I hope that I will continue to live by feminism ideals despite being elbow high in baby poop!