K and I have been together for nearly ten
years now and have been married for seven of these. One question that we seem to
get asked with increasing frequency and increasing volume is "When are you
two having kids?"
This is a blog post about that: I started thinking about how to write this while
we were in England last July for my brother’s wedding.
"When are you two having kids?" we we were asked many times last June.
I’m not sure why this question was so foremost in our friends’ minds while we
were in the UK, but it seemed to be paramount in the thoughts. I had lost count
of the number of times I was asked "When are you two having kids?" by
the time we boarded the aeroplane to Dubai. We occasionally were asked were
we going to have kids, but it was when that seemed to be the question of the
month.
We had decided about eighteen months before this visit that, perhaps, to have a
small family of our own would make for an even happier future than the one that
already lay ahead. We’d not announced this, however. The bedroom window had been
open at a suitable angle for a year and a half but there having been no sign of
a stork thus far. The best answer I could give at this juncture was, "we
don’t know."
"When are you two having kids?"
The question whirred around in my mind a lot while we were overseas. I wondered
what kind of answers people were expecting…
For some people, those that have decided that they don’t like children or those
who are concerned about over-populating the planet, then the answer is easy and
obvious.
For a couple undergoing assistance for conception, then then answer might not be
quite what the inquisitor wants to hear: Oh, is that the time? Do excuse us. We
should be busy opening the window for the stork. Or something.
Perhaps they expect us to say, "Oh, didn’t we tell you?"
K and I have often shared much, perhaps too much, of our lives with our
friends via the Internet: photographs, tweets, blogs, email and so on. Do our
friends seriously expect that we would have neglected to mention the fact that
we’re expecting a baby? Come on, people!
Since we have returned from our twelve week
scan, I suppose
now might be the appropriate time to share such a piece of information. I am
absolutely delighted to announce that about the third week in July we expect to
have a third (and only a third) member of the Johns household.
