✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Why baby now? - Rachel’s Substack

rachelweinberg.substack.com · 3,435 words · saved by 1 readers

I’m 21, married, and purposefully pregnant (about 11 weeks as of writing). I’m also not religious, am a software engineer, and live in San Francisco. This is altogether surprising to people, so I often get asked why I’m having a kid right now. I’ve noticed I have a habit of rambling off a list of upsides in order to justify myself, as I will do at the end of this post—these upsides are, in sum, significant, and maybe if none of them applied I wouldn’t be doing this right now, but they are nowhere near the core of this decision. The core of this decision is that I want to and I can. For a long time I’ve had frequent dreams about becoming a mother. The first time I had this dream I was fifteen or so—I hadn’t actually had sex yet, which made it particularly strange and memorable—and, as with every similar dream since, there was no teenage pregnancy panic, no fear that my life was over or contemplation of getting an abortion. It was a happy dream.1 Later when an accidental teenage pregnanc

Why baby now? I want to and I can. Rachel Dec 14, 2023 35 11 2 Share I’m 21, married, and purposefully pregnant (about 11 weeks as of writing). I’m also not religious, am a software engineer, and live in San Francisco. This is altogether surprising to people, so I often get asked why I’m having a kid right now. I’ve noticed I have a habit of rambling off a list of upsides in order to justify myself, as I will do at the end of this post—these upsides are, in sum, significant, and maybe if none of them applied I wouldn’t be doing this right now, but they are nowhere near the core of this decisio

Explore this link on the map →

related reading