Mommie Dearest

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I know quite a few people who would find that question ridiculous. We are grown up, right? We are college students and professionals, we have bills to pay and jobs to do, and some of us even have families to take care of.

Maybe it's just me, but despite all of that I don't consider myself to be a grown-up just yet. Sure I have responsibilities, but I also still have dreams, hopes and aspirations.

When I grow up I want to be a mom. I know that may make me sound extremely childish but that is the plain and simple truth. I want to be a mother more than anything. That's what I've always wanted to be, and nothing is going to stop me from becoming one.

I personally don't see this as a bad thing. Think of all the jobs that a mom has to do, sometimes all in one day: mediator, doctor, nurse, playmate, disciplinarian, chef and counselor. Being a mom is such a momentous undertaking that it demands the title of full-time job.

When I tell people that this is what I want to do, their reactions would make you think that I was announcing my intentions to be a stripper.

Sure, several doors have been opened for women over the past few decades to a world where we're now told we can be anything we want to be, and that's okay — as long as what we want to be falls within the expectations of a modern woman.

Society has done a complete 180 from the docile housewives of the early-to-mid 1900s, and earlier. Now women aren't only expected to be something more than a housewife, it is almost demanded of them.

I can't even count how many people have been blatantly appalled at me at the fact that I want to be a mom. Yes, I have been educated all the way through college and I don't have any intentions of wasting that expensive endeavor, but when the time comes, my priority is going to be first and foremost my family.

Honestly, I would love to know what's so wrong with that. I want to settle down with the man I love instead of bouncing from sexual partner to sexual partner as so many people my age do. What an outrage!

Don't even get me started on the fact that I want to bring children into a loving, accepting and stable environment where they will be encouraged to grow into respectable adults. How dare I?!

Who could hope that a child be brought into an environment like that, when there are accidental pregnancies and welfare babies being born every day to undeserving people who couldn't care less about this new life they brought into the world?

There are worse things than an educated woman wanting to spend her adult life raising a family. Perhaps my dream of being a mom when I grow up doesn't seem so awful after all.

I honestly feel like a rare breed of woman in today's world where the powerhouse female rules. I still believe in the sanctity of marriage, love that can withstand the test of time, the fairytale ending and investing time in being a family.

I'm not asking people to understand why I want to dedicate my life to being Holly Housewife. But I do ask for the same common courtesy that any professional woman would receive, and that is the acceptance of my decision without judgment.

Bridget DeMeis can be reached by email at demeis.record@live.com